Doing PhD with True Purpose and Love

Recently I did something I never thought I’d do again – I enrolled in a PhD. After two experiences of postgraduate studies I vowed I would never put myself through the process again. As a PhD student I felt enormous pressure to perform, to make sure I met the final deadline, and as a researcher ‘in training’ I always felt I did not know enough. As I embark on this PhD I have taken some time to reflect on the reasons for my previous studies and how it could be different this time around.

Reflecting back on why I started a PhD in Psychology, I realise I didn’t really know what else to do. Academic achievement had been what I did best so this was a natural progression. I also enjoyed research, was good at it and became enthralled with the postgraduate student lifestyle.

I had my sights set on a good job that paid well and the academic lifestyle looked pretty good, but I can say now that it felt pretty empty and I can see how the enthrallment was all about recognition – recognition for achieving a high level of academic success, for getting your work published, for being an expert in your field.

In less than 12 months I quit the PhD program for a range of different reasons, but primarily because I had to get a job to support myself. I ended up working as a research assistant within the university setting which I thoroughly enjoyed and on reflection I can see that I enjoyed the sense of purpose that working brought, not to mention the substantial pay packet. Being in another country and a bigger city also opened me up to more possibilities of career choice and I became aware of an inner dissatisfaction with the choices I’d made so far in terms of study.

Fast forward 5 years, I was still working as a research assistant at a university and still enjoying it when I became interested in an area of research new to me – Medical Anthropology. As I learned more about medical anthropology and its focus on health and illness in other countries, I decided to do a PhD and chose a topic that would see me return to Africa where I had holidayed a few years earlier. I saw this as a way to make a difference in the world; to improve the health of people in developing countries.

In all honesty it was also an opportunity to run away from a sense of unease with my life at age 30.

At 30 I had a great job, great friends – basically life was one big party – but I felt empty inside. I was single and felt like a failure where relationships were concerned, I was racking up debt and not really clear on what I wanted in life. Going back to Africa for 12 months to conduct research felt glamorous and adventurous but in truth I was just running away and distracting myself from the sadness and emptiness I felt inside.

Back in Australia, busy analysing and writing up my data, my investment in wanting to make a contribution to the world meant I experienced incredible anxiety about what I was actually producing. I always felt like I never knew enough about the theories, my writing wasn’t up to academic standards, and I viewed my supervisors as the experts. This led to a lot of procrastination.

Basically I never saw myself or my work as good enough and so held myself as less than more qualified others. I became increasingly disillusioned with the PhD.

This second foray into postgraduate study had opened my eyes to the reality of the highly competitive nature of academia that I had completely missed, or chose to ignore the first time round! I saw the pressure on academics to both teach, conduct research and publish in highly ranked journals in order to bring in more research funding for the university. PhD students are another avenue of funding, with departments receiving a certain amount of money for each PhD student enrolled. I observed the high levels of stress in the people around me and ultimately decided that was not what I wanted in my life.

My time in Africa also taught me a lot about the realities of the international aid business, and I began to question who is really benefitting, feeling this was not an arena I wanted to work in either. Financial pressures again saw me return to full-time work, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be an academic so I abandoned my PhD.

Ten years later (and still working as a research assistant), here I am again, enrolled in a PhD and this time around, loving it.

I have finally found what I know to be something true that needs to be shared with the world – the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

The ‘what for’ is for all of humanity.

This PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.

I feel no personal investment in it, no sense of having to achieve something to please others, to be recognised, to feel good about myself, or feel that I have some value to the world. What I do have is a sense of clarity about how things are so I find I can read the literature without getting bogged down in it (most times), knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis. Another significant difference for me is in the relationship with my supervisor, where this time around I find I can hold myself as an equal.

I know that this is due to what I have learned about self-love, self-care and self-responsibility from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.

I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone. I am also learning that it is very possible to invest in myself through self-care, paying attention to what I eat and drink, when I need to sleep, when I work, when I need to stop, when I need support, so that this is a PhD done in, and with love, at every step.

A heartfelt thank you to Serge Benhayon for your unwavering love, support and encouragement is felt every step of the way.

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580 Comments

Jenny Ellis says:October 18, 2015 at 5:27 am

What a refreshing experience to read about Michelle, in an arena as you say that is renown for the stress, pressure and ‘hard yakka’ required to get through. Your absolute joy pervades everything you’ve shared and almost makes a PhD sound appealing…

Jenny I recently realised that when I also let go of any old ideas about what ‘nurturing’ is then the PhD process will in fact be nurturing for me as my body is ready to embrace it, therefore it is not a strain. So I’m learning about true nurturing as well and listening to the impulses of the my body about what it needs at any one moment – and sometimes that is to read and write.

I can feel how this is a totally different way of working and living Michelle. Following the impulse to write from the body not from the drive of the mind which is invested in the outcome delivering me some form of sense of achievement or recognition.

To read about being able to study from the body not the mind is really something. It’s a rarity in academia and one, if I ever feel the impulse to study again, will embody. Very powerful to read how possible and joyful study can be when study goes way beyond personal benefit.

Study that “goes way beyond personal benefit”, yes that is key Karin, if we consider study with this grander intention then there is much greater scope for research to benefit everyone. Within the research we can explore topics that have been left untouched for too long and bring a big dose common sense wisdom into what is offered for consideration.

carolien says:October 31, 2015 at 2:19 pm

Stephen your comment is very powerful as today most research is not bringing us true answers and is conducted for the sake of financial benefit, personal gain and recognition and under many influencing factors, ideals and beliefs that keep it from brining truth to humanity.

Kelly Zarb says:January 5, 2016 at 8:30 am

When we take self away from study and bring it to being for all it really does change everything. This applies to all facets of life too. It really is about getting ourselves out of the way and expressing for all. Very powerful indeed.

Sandra Henden says:October 22, 2015 at 3:25 am

“Following the impulse to write from the body not from the drive of the mind…”, great words Jennifer. What an amazing way to write a PhD, straight from the body’s true intelligence and when something like this is written from our lived experience and something that we know to be true then it can’t help but heal anyone who reads it, not to mention the healing you get from the way it is written.

That’s right Sandra everyone benefits when it’s written from the body’s intelligence. I certainly did not know the difference between the mind’s knowledge and the body’s intelligence until Universal Medicine presented this. Your outlook on life completely changes. It’s more like an ‘inlook’ and knowing how life really should be …

Karin Barea says:November 12, 2015 at 5:19 am

Wow, if study was like this then the world would be a hugely different place.

Donna Harris says:October 24, 2015 at 6:49 am

Well said ladies. Michelle I can feel how dysfunctional and destructive all that competition is when one gives into all the university pressures. I can also feel the joy when you write from your lived experiences and from what you know to be true in your body, “What I do have is a sense of clarity about how things are so I find I can read the literature without getting bogged down in it (most times), knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis.” It makes ALL the difference this time round.

Agree Donna, all that competition is totally dysfunctional and destructive to people who should really be working together and supporting and lifting the outcomes and true success for all. As you say Donna how can you have clarity in the mind when the focus is competition?

carolien says:October 31, 2015 at 2:09 pm

I love what you share here Jenny and Michelle, the concept of studying being a part of nurturing and self love is a big consciousness breaker. It makes me realise more so how we are all geared to express and if we can feel what our expression is from our body and then acting upon it this is a deeply loving way of being in life.

I feel the same Abby, it’s like everything as we start to re-discover. There are always layers that go deeper then first discovered, and always different aspects to what one may have never considered would be nurturing such as how I chose to wipe a table.

Your blog was a delight to read and kinda blew me out of the water and then to read this comment where your PhD process will be in fact nurturing you, just took it to a whole new stratosphere. You don’t read that every day do you! Thank you for sharing a completely different way to be with study.

Yes Sarah, the statement that Michelle feels the PhD is actually nurturing her is huge, and of course, when we consider that what she is doing she has chosen with the purpose of bringing truth to humanity, so why not would it then make sense that she feel that same support back.

I can definitely relate to this Michelle! Someone wise shared with me some time ago that expressing and writing can actually be very self-nurturing, if that is what is needed for us at that particular time. This has revolutionised how I see work, and the rest of my day. Instead of separate chunks, they all become one and the same with equal opportunity for me to feel nurtured in them. It is the quality I choose to bring, that brings the nurturing or not. Re-discovering a way of being that is truly nurturing with research and academia is a bit of a process, as I have found, and can definitely relate to the experiences you have spoken about above. Your joy and commitment is infectious Michelle, so thank you for continuing to share it!

Amelia it is so about the quality we choose to bring to everything we do and then every moment can indeed be nurturing. Research and academia are so far away from nurturing so our commitment to bring a new way is much needed for all.

Awesome Michelle! Research and study has lost its true purpose. Changing the angle can bring a nurturing aspect to you which in turn honors and supports another. It’s about people. This has reignited and confirmed my connection to the purpose in why I research and study. You are already making a difference Michelle. Really inspiring!!

Kate Chorley says:October 20, 2015 at 6:20 am

Agreed Amelia, by seeing certain activities more important than others we can easily lose ourselves. The quality we bring to all we do is where the real importance lies. By bringing focus to that we can feel nurtured and supported in all we do.

I know what you mean Kate Chorley. It’s like we chose to be present with some things and just losing ourselves in wanting others to end. However real growth is in the consistency of choosing to be all of our gorgeous selves all the time and allow all that we do to feed us back the same quality of nurturing presence we approached the activity with.

Golnaz Shariatzadeh says:October 28, 2015 at 6:30 pm

Very true Kate “The quality we bring to all we do is where the real importance lies. By bringing focus to that we can feel nurtured and supported in all we do.” This leaves us free to clarify our purpose and choose activities that support us, knowing that when are true to ourself we are naturally nurtured.

Rik Connors says:October 30, 2015 at 9:12 am

Spot on Kate “The quality we bring to all we do is where the real importance lies.” Nothing then becomes a chore but a joy to be had in completing a task – your never bored! Life becomes about seeking how things can be simpler, and creating more space to fit more in (fit more joy in!).

Joan Calder says:October 23, 2015 at 5:59 pm

In our culture work and play have become very separated. we have labelled them and designated different tasks to each, this puts enormous pressure on both sides, even play can become an ideal in adulthood. I agree Amelia, when we feel the nourishment of work it becomes play. We all know that children learn through play because they are living in their body. Somewhere along the away we lost that because we joined the ideals and pressures of common practice, and now me need to reconnect with the body live and express from there, and so nourish ourselves. Then work and play merge and life is lived as a whole.

Joan this is so true, we can compartmentalise our lives, making work a chore and desire free time, yet the free time comes and we have no purpose, at least that is my experience. So it makes more sense to make work playful and then we never crave the end or the relief of it being over. This I have only experienced to a certain extent, but I can feel how much more fulfilling it is to make life this way.

carolien says:October 31, 2015 at 2:23 pm

That is a great aspect you bring in Amelia, that what we do in our daily lives does not have to be separate chunks where we like doing some but not all. I have come to learn that the parts I did not like were parts that I have not recognised as my expression and an opportunity to deepen the quality in which I do them.

That is such a great point Amelia. Work is made something to be dreaded and get over with and ‘free time’ is made the time you can be yourself. Though when we are not ourselves at work, then it is hard to switch and suddenly be yourself at home as you carry that momentum of not being yourself with you when coming home from work. At least that is my experience. I am also learning to be all of me in every part of my life including academia life which is challenging at times but very beautiful to do.

Brilliant Michelle – life is medicine as you are showing here. And there are two stories to tell – one is the PhD itself, the other is the way you have been with the PhD – in joy and truth and not sucked into the many ideals and beliefs about PhD’s.

Great point Jane Keep – keeping the two in perspective creates the space for the nurturing aspect to emerge. There is a consciousness around study that I know I swallowed in primary school and am still aware of it in my body. Great to feel it and know it is not true.

That is a great insight Michelle. True ‘nurturing’ is defined by our body not our mind. I have noticed what ticks the box for ‘nurturing’ can be used in an inappropriate moment to avoid something I don’t want to face, and on the opposite end you have found something that normally does not tick the box may actually be immensely nurturing in that moment. Love, intent and purpose are a definite factor, and our body that lets us know.

Michelle I am getting a sense of 2 studies here. One your PhD and the other of you and what you learn about supporting caring and nurturing yourself during this process. Either way both will be for humanity to learn and grow from.

Yes Jane I think I will have to have second ‘thesis’ that is being written along the way. I have a blog site in the planning stages so stay tuned as that feels a perfect place to share a different way to study and my experiences along the way.

That would be really supportive if you did a blog site to show there was a different way to study Michelle. Self nurturing and self care are not considered when studying, for many it is party hard, cramming in the studies in between, forgetting to eat healthily if at all. It would be lovely to hear how you cope with the demands of studying and writing a PhD.

Rik Connors says:October 30, 2015 at 9:21 am

Look forward to the blog Michelle so needed. There is a lot of potential here to show the world how it’s done! Living proof is what everyone wants to hear and feel. On stage is next!

kehinde2012 says:October 19, 2015 at 2:50 pm

Absolutely Jennifer, curious to observe how the study of self is often neglected as we focus on what we believe to be the main study. Not here though, Michelle has shared her evolving relationship with her PHD and we learn about the nature and politics of post-graduate studies. We get two in one, brilliant.

I agree Jennifer – both are equally for humanity although without the self care and nurturing the Purpose of the PhD is lost – the two must go hand in hand / heart to heart for it to truly support everyone. This blog is amazing. University and Students would benefit immensely from blogs like this one. Michelle I hope you go on to write more about this so needed subject.

That’s awesome Michelle that you can feel your body embracing what is truly needed and being able to commit to the purpose of what is needed with out resistance. It makes sense that with this purpose you can hold your self and not be smashed by the ‘normal’ approach to study. Yes you do make it sound very do-able.

Michelle what you share is profound ‘when I also let go of any old ideas about what ‘nurturing’ is then the PhD process will in fact be nurturing for me as my body is ready to embrace it, therefore it is not a strain’. I recently was faced with what seemed daunting, a new role, long hours and on-call every night. How not to become exhausted and overwhelmed? I found a way to be with myself in the role, and by supporting myself throughout the day, there is no strain. Curiously, and like you, I have found writing daily has the quality of self nurturing.

That’s a great reframing of nurturing Michelle. I looked around an online photo image store the other day for pictures with a ‘self-care’ tag and the overwhelming majority of what came up was images of women in baths, at day spas, exercising or (heaven forbid) dieting (i.e. the old tape measure around the waist cliche). But true nurturing is doing whatever supports our expansion, guided by the wisdom of the body. Like you, I can find reading and writing of the research kind easy and doable if in that moment the impulse to do so is true.

That is fascinating Michelle. What your saying in effect can be translated to everything we do, all our choices could feed us back love and nurturing if they are true choices, choices that come from the Soul and serve others. What a delightful new slant on life. In your case the purpose being ” … bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

I am also feeling how reading, writing and studying can be nuturing when you are ready and I am coming from a non-academic background. I also love research when it is about people first. What comes out of it must be heaven sent and through Universal Medicine I am learning to connect to that purpose first and foremost. There is so much joy in working constantly and consistently with this connection as there is so much space and allowing for the message to come forth without even trying, it is simply about letting go of any preconceptions about what I am doing and allowing the space for the work to come through.

I agree, Michelle. I just did a Masters (not a patch on a PhD but not too shabby either) and during the process I learned how to do the studying and the writing of assignments harmoniously. I didn’t manage it in the beginning, getting very tired in the process but in the end even the tightest deadlines were fine and I took them in my stride. Not bad, not bad at all.

It’s very inspirational to read these different accounts of how life can be so different to what we just expect it to be, most are so stressed and overwhelmed in study and I don’t think I have ever really heard of anyone enjoying it! So cool.

I also returned to University a couple of years ago now and found that at first I would get quite affected by reading the articles I was using for research. It became easier and easier to tell quite quickly if an article held anything worthwhile or not. It was a great learning and word counts and deadlines were no problem at all. I can actually say that I enjoyed the experience and loved the writing.

Amazing Michelle, your realization about nurturing is gold! When true purpose is brought to writing and all that it entails, what is there to write about will potentially support all who read it! Love it! Look forward to what you bring and write.

It is revolutionary Judith that is exactly what it is, I love that I have found my self in a place where I am ready to hear such things as in some ways it suits us to think it is too much, too hard only for certain types of people, this really opens it up. If there is true purpose anything is possible.

True Michelle. I am beginning to understand more about what true nurturing means and how it feels in my body and I am finding it quite surprising. I have held a belief for so long that any study is hard work and impossible to be enjoyed but this is so not true. This week I got to do some homework with my children where it was fun. We actually enjoyed doing it and as I reflected I could feel how nurturing this was for all of us.

Ah, so homework can be self nurturing?! -it seems it’s about ‘the way’ you do it, so anything we do can be self nurturing, even the washing up, or studying for an exam, as long as we put ourselves first, listen to and honour our bodies, and bring our natural qualities to it…

You make a great point here Caroline about beliefs about study and how it is often seen as hard work. I can see how we create this by telling children right from the word go that they have to work ‘hard’ to achieve good grades etc. Then we have to work ‘hard’ in our jobs so we can support a family and buy the trappings of the good life. It is unheard of in education to hear that you should work consistently with love, laughter and joy. Imagine if that’s what we taught our children.

Great point Michelle, we can get stuck in ideals and pictures about what nurturing is, warm baths and fragrant hand cream all of which has its place of course. What you are pointing out is that true nurturing can include activities like reading and writing which I find expanding.

Michelle, just this comment alone speaks volumes of the quality of this PhD…true nurturing by listening to your body whilst studying for a PhD is most likely quite rare and so you are laying a foundation of what is possible and can be very normal in universtity studies.

That is so interesting Michelle about what is truly nurturing and how your body actually is ready for this next expression so to do it is actually being fuelled so to not do it actually is fighting your body! How different life is when you work with the body and not the head!

Almost, I can definitely feel that absolute Joy you have written this article in Michelle and how you have learn so much about how to work in such a loving way. It is really very inspiring, as I have always avoided exams and work such as this so this is greatly inspiring.

Agree Jenny, very inspiring and almost makes a PhD sound appealing…haha after to Postgraduate studies I decided to stay out of University this life!!! I used to feel already stressed just by imagining to have to do research!

Michelle, I cant wait to read the results of your PHD. The world definitely needs to hear how amazing ‘the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine’ is. I know that your stats will be off the charts as I have seen first hand the miracles that are happening daily of people turning their lives around due to lifestyle choices.

I agree Marika. I can not wait to read this when it is complete. A compilation of facts about life that we are all still in the making of. The changes in the quality of life for those willing to embark on a self care journey are amazing. I catch glimpses of this all the time for myself….old habits die hard and I often wonder why I wouldn’t choose love all of the time, but it’s the comfort of staying out of the limelight that does it for me. Afraid to shine…afraid of my potential. But slowly I’m working my way out of that dark and boring little cave. Look out!

Like you Marika I can’t wait to read it either as it is the stories and experiences of the students I talk to that are to be the foundation of the thesis so the truth will shine out loud and clear. It will be amazing to present us to the world in a different forum.

I think it is amazing to bring this awareness that nurturing is so much bigger than the small pigeon hole I had put it into! It is like you have said Katie a quality that you can bring to everything you do.

Changing the face of post graduate studies as well as presenting the world with what will be some “normal” shattering statistics and insights from the Livingness of students of Universal Medicine – how absolutely fantastic Michelle. Please put me on the waiting list!

Truly groundbreaking…it will blow people’s socks off when they read the incredible stories of how many people have transformed their lives, health and general wellbeing through living a simple, loving and nurturing life based on what is presented by Serge Benhayon.

Yes this research once published is going to well and truly support that we are the makers of our own health and well being. So many of us are not willing to admit this preferring to believe that it all just pops out of the sky or is simply bad luck. The more we are aware of this fundamental fact the more we can learn to make different choices.

Yes Marika, it will be great to have a study and research on, ‘the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine,’ this will then help bring,
‘back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.’

Michelle your contribution to bring back the hidden truths to humanity is very appreciated.
What an amazing light you are bringing all of who you are and holding this knowing into an arena where the conditioning must feel very heavy, with people trying to live up to images of all they think they should be.

As far as I know Epigenetics has come the closest to explaining from a scientific perspective how our everyday living choices affect our health and wellbeing. But we all know this by how we feel from day to day based on our choices. Students of Universal Medicine are living examples of this with many looking and feeling younger as they get older and defying the mainstream trends of illness and disease. Looking forward to reading your findings Michelle – academia sure needs bucket loads of truth.

You are right Marika that students of Universal Medicine are going against the normal when it comes to ageing and health. Generally people are looking older than their age and have at least one chronic health condition. Whereas when I find out a students age I am always shocked and left wondering, “How can they be that age when they look so great and act so young?”

Absolutely Marika, I am exploring epigenetics at the moment, and it is incredible how clearly it shows that our choices switch on and off our genes which result in how our bodies are. But this is just one aspect to it, and there is much to be shared about how important our daily choices are not just for our health, but for relationships, honesty and awareness.

With this developing awareness Hannah Morden, it is like we are beginning to ‘wake up’ and understand that we have been living SO far from what our bodies are designed for. The pall of comfort and disrespect we have for ourselves as a humanity is devastating. The Ageless Wisdom and shared by Serge Benhayon is our way back to living fully the amazing beings that we are. Thank you Hannah.

I enjoyed reading your story Michelle. It is inspiring how when you truly started to care for your well being the purpose of your work became clear and joyful. I agree a PHD on the approach to health, wellbeing and life as presented by Serge Benhayon will be a great service to humanity. Enjoy.

Me too enjoyed reading your story. I had to laugh and smile when I found out that you are doing your PHD in love… This is how I describe what I am studying with the support from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

Michelle, I love what you have shared here. I can totally relate to all your feelings of not being enough, and being less than others, and suffered from that for many years, especially with a husband with a PhD. I enrolled at University in a Bachelor of Arts as a (very) mature age student. In my final year I was enthralled with Medical Sociology, very similar to your Medical Anthropology, with lots of cross-cultural studies, and planned to go on further to a higher degree. But due to family situations and my husband’s ill health at that point, I did not go on with my studies. Then some years later, like you, I met Serge Benhayon and attended workshops with Universal Medicine and began to live my life by the Way of the Livingness. Over time I have come to see that my whole reason for wanting to go to University, and be involved in research was coming from my personal need for recognition, to build my sense of self worth which I was looking for from outside of myself. I now know that this self worth comes from within MYSELF, through connecting truly with my innermost, and I am enough as I am. But in your case, I find it quite exciting to see the huge worth in the research you are now undertaking, with such a different approach, this you are now obviously doing for the sake of humanity, with nothing in it for yourself. Your results I am sure, will be so inspiring to share with humanity, could be world-changing, important for us all. I look forward to reading them.

Doing a university degree has always come across as an academic feat – and is certainly sold that way to society.
Having a degree is seen to make one more qualified and capable in the subject – but in all this where is the love? Where is the nurturing that comes with doing these degrees so it is not all based on mental gain. The new approach offered here is huge – and should be read by those just going into degrees so they understand there can be another way to complete their studies. We often hear of the sleep deprived late nights suffered by students – but this does not have to be so. At the end of the day we all have a choice of how things are done and we all have the opportunity to change what does not feel loving. Universal Medicine is an ambassador of this.

For a PhD to be ‘done in, and with love, at every step’ Michelle you are breaking the mold of how we know academia to be. Yours absolutely a service to Humanity. Your way an inspiration to fellow students, lecturers, in fact all you meet.

It is so lovely that Michelle is bringing love into a system that has not traditionally had foundations in love. As you have said Giselle, this is a system that is about people and by bringing love to the system, she is bringing love to all she meets, works with, all who read her work, in fact, everyone!

Yes Simone, Michelle is bringing love to everyone by demonstrating what is possible and allowing others to know the truth! This changes the whole world as we do when we also express truth in the day to day. We underestimate how powerful we are by expressing our truth. What I love about this expression is that it can just be a knowing smile as we pass a stranger in the street!

Michelle, I love hearing about your journey with your studies and it’s palpable this time round how different your approach is and how much easier it is. Your line ‘who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone’ really struck home, it encapsulates beautifully that each and every one of us is complete in and of ourselves, we are enough and when we get to truly know and live that, we then do see and understand that it’s about being that in the world so all can see it’s possible – it’s purpose.

Monica Gillooly, you always bring such simplicity to any complexity in experiences, I just love what you share here in regards seeing we are enough and being this in the world, because in this ‘sight’ there is not only the space for appreciation and a palpable swell of one’s worth, but also the undeniable urge towards greater responsibility – the purpose you speak of.

This is a very inspirational story Michelle. I was really struck by the way you described your research in Africa as a ‘running away’. I can see how I have done similar things at different times in my life in an effort to escape myself. It is amazing what we get away with when it ‘looks good’ to the outside world. I can feel the purpose and service in the research you are conducting now. This is a true support for humanity brought to life by a woman who truly supports herself. What a gift.

Agree Leonne with all that you say here. I can also feel the ease with which we get away with giving up on self responsibility so long as it is seen to be doing ‘good’ by the outside world.
We feel as though as long as we appease the expectations of others around us, we are getting by and ‘doing our bit’. How wrong a theory this is.
Michelle conducting her research in an energy that supports her completely first is the only way others will get an opportunity to experience another way.

I totally agree with you, Leonne. “It is amazing what we get away with when it ‘looks good’ to the outside world” – we invest so much on how our life would appear to the outside world at the expense of how we actually feel on the inside. Making life all about what we do only keep us in a preoccupation of some sort, and the core of our being stays thirsty.

Just yesterday I was reflecting on how I used to travel in the past, always looking for something and never quite sure what it was I was looking for. And of course, after a number of years one just gives up on it and more likely than not, picks up something else and still forever looking and searching for that elusive something. A something that can never truly materialise on or from the outside, but thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I become aware of this again and it has changed everything.

Awesome point Leonne, if we are doing seemingly ‘good’ activities we get left alone and therefore they can become so much more deeply entrenched and the separation from self much greater. Great to call this out here Michelle, this rot needs to be exposed.

Yes how many projects do we embark on that ‘look good’ but are in truth fuelled by our own needs – desire for recognition, identification, escape, fortune and so on? It’s interesting Michelle talked about the international aid industry, a sector with close associations to the charitable sector with which I’m familiar. There’s a strong current of needing to ‘do good’ in both, which I ‘ve observed for the most part masks a great deal of self. Altruism in its true form is exceptionally rare.

Oh my god yes! Absolutely. This is a wonderful quote Adam. One that must be read every day. The pressure we put on ourselves to reach the expectatins of others only to feel for that very very brief moment a sense of validation is in effect, evil. An insatiable way to live.

What I find the scariest is that this can be observed in young children in their first years in school where I’ve heard stories of kids as young as 5 getting in panics because they have to get all the words in their spelling test right. What happened to just letting children be?

Michelle, it is awesome to break down those unloving patterns concerning studying. Children suffer under the pressure having to learn something which for them feels not logical. Children mostly have such a natural feeling of what makes sense and what not. So when you study from your heart Michelle, this helps break down old unloving patterns of studying.

Agree Michelle children learn at school from an early age that they have to achieve something,, to get it right without being allowed to find out for themselves and this then continues in to adult life. I look forward to the day when your PhD and the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom and Universal Medicine brought through by Serge Benhayon filter into schools and universities and bring a new foundation to our education system.

Alison I look forward to that day too for as I’m learning more about the true nature of our current education system, from primary school through to university, and the theories that have come to underpin it, then I can see how it is designed to keep us from the truth of who we are.

Monika Rietveld says:October 19, 2015 at 3:33 am

I agree, Michelle, we reflect this striving for perfection to our children and they panic indeed when they do something ‘wrong’. The love for the word ‘oops’, allowing ourselves to learn from mistakes and that ‘being’ is enough, is highly needed in our society.

Yes the whole education system needs to be re-evaluated as we are developing stressed ‘human-doings’, when we should be nurturing ‘human-beings’.

There has been much discussion of late about homework for primary school kids with varying views. I tend to agree with the fact that kids have been given way too much homework and that it is more important for them to have a balance of play, family time and social development as the focus has gone way too far into knowledge accumulation and competitive academia. If there is no joy in learning we tune out. And we don’t want to be raising ‘checked out’ kids who then become checked out adults.

The education system does seem to have a lot of its values and beliefs mixed up at the moment, I agree Marika. How are our children during and after being in education? Are they being truly supported?

Victoria Lister says:October 20, 2015 at 6:31 am

This is true, it does start extremely young. About 12 years ago I took a tutoring job, working primarily with high school students. I was completely shocked when the company I worked for started advertising sessions for children as young as Grade 1: “We will get your child ready for Grade 1 by teaching them how to hold a pencil” was the thrust the pitch. And that was over a decade ago – the pressure can only have intensified since. What on earth are we fostering – and allowing – here???

I have observed how different it is for young children nowadays to how it was when I was a child. There actually seems to be less childhood now, with children from a very young age subject to many outside pressures and influences that simply did not exist 50 years ago. I also notice the growing trend of keeping children constantly busy, constantly at this activity or that activity after school – my partner recently joked they’ll be running toastmasters for kids soon (they probably already do). There seems very little time where children are just allowed to be and play. No wonder it sets it up for them to be anxious about not getting their spelling right.

I agree Michelle, it’s a shame that they have taken the joy out of teaching and even more toxic is the consciousness behind Education. I did not enjoy learning until I went back to studying in my late thirties and throughout my forties. We should be taught that our intelligence does not come from our heads but from our bodies. And that everything we will ever need to know comes from a connection with ourselves first. It is from here that the knowledge will flow from; something I am still learning to completely surrender to and a much more beautiful way to be in life. Michelle THANK YOU for bringing this to the fore – millions of students, teachers, professors and University bodies will now have the opportunity to see that there is a different way to learn/study/write.

This reminded me of an experience at school in my teens. We were being graded into classes and the test was english and spelling. I saw some of my friends go into the top class and I was in the next one down, based on the results of this test. I remember feeling not good enough and less intelligent than them. It set us up to be in competition with each other. And so to hear children as young as 5 getting into a panic over spelling is just setting them up to be this way for their future.

Exactly Adam, nor is it defined by what we have. It is a classic example of the struggle of humanity to find identification in our achievements, whatever they may be, but it all leads to emptiness when we are not living the truth of who we are.

A timely reminder Adam. This is something I often forget. It is indeed a challenge because we have been brought up to be identified by what we do. I still get caught up measuring the success of my day by how much I have gotten done of my to-do list.

The reason why I was so exhausted in the last years was, because I thought – my worth is depending on what I’m doing. What an illusion. Thanks to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I found the true connection to myself and to my worth again, and this worth doesn’t depend on anything. It is enough, just being me.

This is a very beautiful read Michelle, and you can really feel the joy that you are now experiencing with your study as your purpose is one of true worth and your love is all over it. Thank you for sharing.

An incredible time to be bringing this subject back to the world, Michelle and especially powerful through the route of academia. It feels like a true calling and your responsibility for the integrity in which you will conduct your PhD – ‘in, and with love, at every step’ – is palpable.

I agree Cathy it is awesome how Michelle is bringing this subject back to the world. The world loves science and through this PhD Michelle will be able to bring to the world what so many of us have felt and known about what Universal Medicine brings to and what it offers to humanity.

Thank you Michelle, Cathy and James, I agree, to bring the world to Universal Medicine through any avenue can only be of benefit as an inspiration to those who want to re-connect to the true love we all naturally are.

‘To be able to use PHD and love in the same sentence feels so ground breaking.’ I agree Ingrid and Michelle’s work is so needed to break down all the false ideals and beliefs around academia which is also a reflection of how so many are living.

Yes, agreed, much more needs to be written about the heavy consciousness. Its no wonder you opted out twice. Now with more loving and caring support, and not being laced with the recognition/pressures that Education comes with, you will find so much ease! Keep sharing you amazing findings with the World Michelle!

Agree Cathy Hackett and James Nicholson, just seeing Michelle in the photo exudes natural buoyancy and zest for humanity, there is nothing depleted about this PhD student – a far cry from the usual reality of students deep in the sinking mud of self-interest. Michelle you shine vitality as you study.

Karina what you say about offering a healing to all is so true as it will be the stories of the student body presented. I’ve learned through doing some analysis of a group of blogs just how healing it is when we express our lived truth, so any documents we produce from love and in commitment to humanity are healing for all.

Thank you Michelle for a fresh look at university study and PhD’s. I can feel your full commitment firstly to yourself and then that being available to others as you have shared your story. This is the way we can all change the world we live in, just by committing to our self and fully sharing this as we go about each and every day.

Great line “be the change you want to see in the world”. It is so easy to sit back and critique the world and state how it should be different, yet it takes true love and courage to stand up and do something about it. Thank you Michelle and others for showing there is another way and we don’t have to accept the current status quo.

I find a PhD is simply a calling-card for senior positions, whether it is in academia, public service or business. By itself it is not enough but it makes it easier to apply and get accepted for positions of responsibility.
This has the great advantage that we can work on a bigger scale if we choose to do so and it is a great way to deal with any issues of self-worth we may have as they will get exposed along the way.

You are so spot on Christoph in identifying a PhD as calling card or step towards more senior positions. The interesting thing is that more and more people are doing them (often pressured by others including family or the university) and there is in fact less and less guarantee of a job at the end so it will be interesting to observe what form of striving we turn to next in our search for recognition.

So true Michelle, post-PhD employment prospects are low generally and in academia extremely competitive yet they continue to be touted as keys to success. I can’t help but feel the whole system is redundant – years spent producing an enormous monograph few will ever read. I love what you are doing as it will actually provide real benefit to the world beyond the doing of the thing itself.

Michelle it feels that what you are doing is perhaps being done for the very first time. To complete a PHD with genuine self love feels truly groundbreaking to me. Thousands of people finish their degrees in much worse health than they started. They have lived under huge amounts of stress, often eating badly, sleeping badly and using stimulants and relaxants to get through busy times. I wonder energetically how their final Phd’s feel to the reader when read. Conversely when someone takes your document in their hands they are going to receive a blessing, even if they don’t read it.

Alexis the great news is I’m not the first, Jane Keep completed her PhD a couple of years ago on Self Care in the Workplace and I can tell you it does indeed feel very different to read compared to other PhD’s I’ve read. You can feel there is no push in it, there is a grace to it, an ease and flow, and of course truth. I know that reading Jane’s PhD inspired me.

Academia expresses in a consistent choice of supremacy, separation and arrogance which is regarded as an accepted normal in our world. What do students truly learn (no matter what level of education they are in) when they are not held as equal in love when it comes to education?

I have found those involved in education at that level to fall prey to their own hype that academic intelligence is the be all and end all. Yet they can not tell us how a bumble bee flies… I just wouldn’t be so sure my intelligence was all that if I can’t work out things that are in front of me. I imagine it is the uncomfortable knowing that they actually don’t have all the answers and fall short so often that leads them to be so forceful in selling their way. The damage done by this system of education is beyond measure but the fact we have people now coming through that are connected to true intelligence and are teachers also is the heartening knowledge that things will not always be this way.

Supremacy energy is indeed rampant in the university system. And so many have fallen under its spell! Academia demands so much of those who work in it – I find the university energy wants to ‘own’ you – and it easily will if you allow it. Staying present with yourself is an on-going challenge.

Having attended University myself in the past I can relate to what you found with your earlier experiences. There is dreadful pressure and expectation on University staff and students which has nothing to do with serving humanity and is more about self investment and greed. While the same can be said about working or studying practically anywhere I found it particularly true within the education system. It has been an eye opener reading your blog and seeing how it is possible to be in such an environment and to not just survive, but to actually thrive because you are coming from a true source. Thank you – your work is desperately needed and I look forward to hearing more about it as it progresses.

I work in the University sector and I see first hand the constant competition between colleagues, between departments, between universities. Instead of being a place where one comes to learn about life and a particular discipline it is a cauldron of anxiety, deadlines to beat, race for recognition, need to achieve at all costs. The result, as has been reported, is a very unhealthy climate where unethical behaviour can quickly creep in. So Michelle the world needs you to reestablish balance and love.

As an undergraduate student, I can completely contest to the fact that a PhD is so very well thought of, as well as so highly competitive and pressured. Why is it that considering the purpose of a PhD is research, why is the improvement of humanity at the forefront, not funding or status.

Yes, Heather and to build on that: imagine if all the research, even everything we do was done for service of humanity. Where would we be? Our world would certainly be a different place, one with true brotherhood.

Michelle- how awesome that you are doing a PhD on health, wellbeing and life of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I can’t wait for your amazing statistics to be revealed. Amazing truths about life have indeed been hidden from humanity, and it is indeed time to reveal it all, with truth and honesty.

I too look forward to reading the results of Michelle’s research. These will be results really worth waiting for, and I am sure will be mind-boggling, as those of us who have experienced living our lives this way have come to feel.

When we disconnect from truth, we are driven to invest in our work, our friends, our achievements and their outcomes etc. in order to abate the emptiness we feel for not living what is true. When truth (love) is connected to and expressed, it is an hounour to deliver it for it belongs to everyone and can never be kept for the self, as it resides within us all and is there to be shared.

I agree Liane, when love is connected to and expressed, it is an honour to deliver it as everything we say or do in that connection is one step closer to brotherhood. Purpose starts to shine from our very beings.

Incredibly wise words Liane, and has me pondering opening to the space for the expression in truth, rather than trying to shorten and cram sentences so not to take so much of someone’s time, and enjoying every moment of doing so.

Well said, Liane. When we feel empty we are constantly hankering after recognition to fulfill the needs of the spirit, whereas sharing the truth of what we can connect to and know deep inside is a natural expression and a blessing for all.

“I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.”
Gorgeous Michelle – love is enough…but do we have enough love? That is, do we give ourselves permission to express the entirety of what is there to be expressed from deep within us all?

Liane I deeply appreciate what you offer here, the gentle reminder that there is always more to be felt and expressed and I can tell you that is definitely a learning as I go through this process and feel all that is not love coming towards me.

I love how you write: “do we give ourselves permission to express the entirety of what is there to be expressed from deep within us all?” If we express truth we aren’t expressing something that is ‘mine’, or belongs to someone, it is from deep within us ALL.

Michelle, thanks very much for your great blog. This sound like a PhD worth reading! I love how you have identified and revealed the intents and motivations behind your various trips , post-grad degrees and researches, ones I certainly recognise. What an inspiration you are!

I remember when writing my PhD many years ago I enjoyed it immensely as I was immersed researching the Hermetic Philosophers and literary writers of the Renaissance, but I used to wonder who on earth would ever read it and what use it would ever be! The books that came out of it were read, but not by humanity en masse, and I imagined that I was keeping alive a certain cultural historic thread that would remind us of true alchemy and the wholeness of the universe. But like you Michelle, I had my hidden motives. I wanted to hide out amongst the likes of Shakespeare, John Dee and his son Arthur, Elias Ashmole, John Donne and many others. I didn’t want to be in this century which seemed to have lost its way but back then when something decent was being written!.

I love the truth that you have presented here Lyndy about using your studies to hide, in your case in the past. There are so many ways we can choose to hide but I have also found study to be an effective method and one that has a lot of legitimacy in terms of appearances – it looks good to be at university..

Michelle wow you are so leading in the way in the true purpose of having a PHD is for the evolution of humanity and nothing to do with advancement of the person. You are so inspiring and I am looking forward to the amazing research on Universal Medicine being presented to the world.

Michelle, you are leading the way for school, university, careers and all intellectual pursuits that exist.. The gold you are sharing is that you ARE before you DO, and so with the love that you now clearly live within your own life is expanding into every pocket of the world that you step. Thank you.

Cherise you identify ‘intellectual’ pursuits and it feels so important that we call out the truth here, at least from my experience, that so-called intellectual pursuits leave no space for love or caring, or for taking humanity into account in a true sense and so what is intelligent about that I would ask? It is well past time that we get off the treadmill of intellectual pursuit and recognition and come back to the truth we all do know within, and that is that life is about people first.

Yes spot on, and the evidence at university of the impact of intellectual pursuits is in the trail of ill-health and more serious forms of devastation that the research degree experience can leave behind.

What is being shared here is ground breaking. The pursuit of intellectualism is not something that many recognise as stemming from a need to be recognised as a substitute to the love and connection that is being missed. To celebrate a mind without a heart is something we have done for aeons, but it is cold and empty and induces separatism through elitism and competition. As you say Michelle where is the intelligence in fostering all of this?

I agree Cherise, this writing is relavant for everyone pursing anything intellectual so education as it is at the moment and the message “you are before you do” can be expressed as soon as we enter the schooling system.

So true Cherise. This way of approaching study turns the normal way upside down. Generally speaking we come to schools and universities to be filled up with skills and knowledge. I find students start out feeling less than what they will learn and are left with the feeling that they will never know enough. This is a vicious cycle that only self-care can liberate us from

It is truly beautiful what Michelle is grounding as a new normal in academia. It is well overdue and much needed, I remember my first day at university very clearly as much as I loved learning at secondary school I knew on that first day that I would not survive university and left after the first year, it was the coldest, most loveless place I had encountered.

I’m not sure how long ago you were at university Vanessa, but having been in it now for over 20 years in one capacity or another I can attest that nothing has changed – cold and loveless is spot on Vanessa. I have watched a massive transformation in that Universities have become businesses and to survive there are many compromises being made. I have to say I found it a little ironic when at my recent induction session we were informed all postgraduate research students have to now complete an online module on ‘research integrity’ as if this will solve the issues of corruption at universities!!

Gorgeous expression Cherise. And yes, this exposes the fact that the whole education system in the wrong way around. It is and always has been about who we are first, not what we do. Time for this system to have a complete overhaul from the ground up!

This is a very beautiful expose of study and purpose, particularly in the higher education area. I am sure that many students get caught in the academic acheivement cycle and get churned out the end with a fist full of papers with the qualifications and desire to get a ‘great job’. What you have discovered is that with true purpose, a PHD has true power – and that is to serve humanity. That you are doing it while self-caring is ground-breaking in itself. Congratulations, the world will benefit greatly by what you are bringing here Michelle.

Well said Jo – Michelle is busting apart so much in producing this PHD, including the true purpose behind current academia and university intentions. To serve humanity and truly wish to make the world a better place and evolve mankind is a far cry from what education currently brings. Michelle is knocking down the walls of this almighty consciousness simply by claiming her truth.

Appreciating all that we bring to the world… this is a big thing as we first need to rediscover the qualities we are and the wisdom we hold, find out that the world needs us to be living this quality so to truly serve and bring our unique expression and thirdly to accept and appreciate that what we bring holds the essence of who we are in equality to everyone else.
Appreciating who we are and what we bring to the world in whatever it is that we do, is just beautiful…

There is true purpose here when you feel to the core, that what you are researching will offer enormous benefit to humanity, to people. This purpose is the fuel, the inspiration to carry your research project Michelle, and the self awareness, self love that you have developed is the carriage to deliver and contribute such a transformational package to many industries and people. Totally Awesome and inspiring!

Having had the pleasure of some chats with you Michelle about research, I can say I for one am inspired by what will come from your studies, not merely a paper with no value, but something of immense value for all.

What I like reading your comment Joanna, is seeing the support that is now available to Michelle – far from the PhD being pointless, or incommunicable to a lay person, this bit of research is for all of us and the support that will be available will be enormous.

Using your academic achievements to serve people has far greater purpose and integrity over gaining qualifications for the purpose of recognition or job title. I have no doubt you will be successful in completing your PHD

Yes, very well said Joe. Gaining qualifications, academic achievements and ‘good grades’ is used by many as a way to get recognition, and this occurs because from a young age we learn that in order to gain the ‘gold star’, you must perform in a certain way… For a lot of people even their parents focus more on what they can do rather than who they are naturally, and how amazing they are.

“I have finally found what I know to be something true that needs to be shared with the world – the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine”. That is brilliant, Michelle, from this, you have a real purpose in the research and studies that you have undertaken. This is a sharing that is needed for humanity, a true purpose that could change the world over time. As more and more people realise the great truths that you will be sharing with them, the more people will undergo a massive healing. No longer are you studying/researching for yourself, but for the sake of humanity. This is Pure Gold.

It is so true Michelle and Beverey, there is so much research needed on why we are manifesting so much illness and disease, are we chasing our tails by focusing only on treatments? Furthermore there is so much research wasted on things that do not truly help humanity.

I never got past doing a degree; the thought of a master degree and then a PHD was something that I didn’t even want to consider. It does seem full of the competition and pressure that you describe Michelle. However, the fact that you have turned this around, found true purpose with your current work is fantastic. “Knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis.” Your PHD paper is one that I would definitely read!

I agree Rachel, there is so much competition in the university sector and it only gets more competitive and the need for recognition for further up you go into the qualification ranks. Doing a PhD is a lot about recognition, so for Michelle to be bringing something totally different, will be very exciting and I agree one that I will want to read.

Thanks for sharing Michelle,
I look forward to the results of your study and research as I am sure it will be awe inspiring. The way you are approaching your work feels so supportive and less exhausting than many find university to be.

Over the years I have watched many people study a range of PHD’s, what I have come to notice with out exception is how they have all seemed to get lost in the subject they are studying, it seems to literally consume them and reality of life is no longer clear. I have also noticed with this kind of intense study often comes with heavy stress and emotional burden – which of course then plays havoc with the physical body.

What you are expressing here Michelle and the way you are doing it should be the blue print for all those who study- you have truly assessed the reasons you are doing it and know it is for humanity rather then any part of self and you are doing it in such a way that honors your body. Bringing true purpose, self care and nurturing into a PHD is never heard of and you are breaking all the molds!. Thank you for shining your light on an often very dark area

This is amazing, Michelle. I feel very touched and blessed to read your honest sharing. And imagining what if you had pushed yourself even more at your past attempts for a PhD to complete, and be successful in academia – we probably wouldn’t be hearing this from you, and there wouldn’t be a PhD done in love, with love.

No wonder you are loving your PhD Michelle. What a topic! A PhD on Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and sharing age old truths once again. That alone will make you wake up with a huge smile in your heart.

That is awesome Michelle, I am longing forward to reading it. I love how you have come to the realisation that you are enough just as you are. It takes away so much of the pressure and strain we otherwise put on ourselves constantly trying to prove ourselves to others and even ourselves! I have also come to the same realisation thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine whom I am eternally thankful for lighting my path and way forward.

Yes James – I agree, especially when you talk about pressure, we can put on ourselves and others. In my life I had such a drive for recognition, which created a lot of pressure. To realize, that everything I need is inside me, is so liberating and takes away the pressure of life.

What you have chosen to study is of great value to humanity not only because the presentations of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon are life changing but you are well equipped and carry the authority to deliver this study as these presentations are your own experience too. It is inspiring to read how you have no investment or expectations through this process and how you “have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone.” Thank you Michelle.

‘I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone’ – this is very inspiring.

Wow Michelle, I love this, ‘I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone’, I love your sense of purpose and of knowing who you are and what you bring. i can feel this with myself to, I have started working more and being out in the world more, bringing my qualities of stillness, caring and tenderness and this feels wonderful.

That is a very big difference. So often the academic study can have so much self involved and it is all about recognition. Knowledge is thrown around with superiority. But when the study is about the sharing of information and getting that information out to the world, it changes everything.

Great blog Michelle. Really revealing that you have not been able to fully commit to your PHD until your found something with true purpose that you can feel within you. Whatever we do, if we cannot connect to that true purpose it feels as if we have one foot out the door in my experience.

Reading this for me highlighted yet another way in which we can run away and escape from our current situation, and in this case all under the guise of doing good by seemingly helping others who are less fortunate and struggling. So, it makes me wonder how many Phd’s have been conducted for self and not humanity – I suspect most are based in self as supposed to considering humanity first and foremost.
What this also shows us Michelle, is how we can approach anything and everything differently when we consider if our efforts serve humanity or not.

Michelle, I can really relate to what you have shared here. I completed my masters in Health Science 2 yrs ago and after many years of study I knew that I needed to study differently this time or else I would not be able to complete it in truth.
I really looked after myself, set aside time for study and only studied at those times and never in the evenings! It flowed very smoothly for me over the two years even though I was also working full time with a family. It is possible with lots of self love and good rhythms.
I love your approach and with humanity at the forefront what you do is amazing and re-imprinting post graduate education. Thank you.

” I am also learning that it is very possible to invest in myself through self-care, paying attention to what I eat and drink, when I need to sleep, when I work, when I need to stop, when I need support, so that this is a PhD done in, and with love, at every step.” This is great Michelle. Enjoy your Ph D this time around – being and bringing all of you to your fiery writing.

The true purpose of eduction and academia, is to offer insight and support humanity to evolve and live life in full, but often it is twisted in on its self and the actual pursuit of ‘study’ becomes the focus over the purpose. It is wonderful how you express the true purpose you feel concerning the new PHD that you have committed to developing, wonderful article to read, thank you.

Beautiful Michelle your real purpose and strengths in life as who you are shines through and all you have to offer Humanity and all your experiences to portray that also. Finding Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine really is life changing and brings us the truth and knowing of the real purpose and fullness of life the world true Health and well being. Thank you for your very real and inspiring sharing .

You don’t do your Phd for yourself but for humanity. This is such a completely different approach in a world where it is about recognition, wanting to get credits, the desire to be special and showing off with knowledge. This is an absolute turn around!

Plato, Aristotle and all the ancient teachers that passed on the ancient knowledge to the world for all to grow… today, where it is all about how you can grow for self-achievement and recognition. By you Michelle and others that are bringing back the original premise of truth for humanity… because it is needed.

What an absolutely amazing, worthwhile and true PHD to embark on where all the relevant information is from the Ancient Wisdom therefore you can’t go wrong and reproduce material that was not true in the first place.

There are several services you are offering us with your PhD, Michelle, not only the blessing Alexis mentioned above as they hold your PhD in their hands, and the information on how many people are changing their lives around, but also to the world of Academia, where everything is about status and funding – your work is being done for pure joy and because it is your natural expression to do it (you love research), and you are truly living what you are writing about. There will be no struggle, because when we do what is naturally ours to do, everything constellates and the support is there. Documenting the work of Serge Benhayon in this way will provide the many researchers and PhD students with a sound reference point for their own research in the future. Awesome.

Purpose in what we do changes everything, and yet for many knowing their purpose is some sort of unattainable new age journey. Knowing the purpose of whatever we choose in life is surprisingly simple, but immensely powerful. What a great blog about purpose in action.

What an amazing way to study, it’s amazing how self love and a real sense of purpose changes everything. I’ve never attempted a PhD, but I had a very similar experience at uni, there was no purpose in it for me so I hated pretty much every second. However I know that if I ever needed to study again I would love it because the purpose of it would be to assist me being in service this life.

I agree Meg, that is exactly what this blog inspires to see that there is another way with studying, where it is about being in service to humanity and that brings in a greater purpose than just doing it for your own recognition. With this greater purpose comes the joy and vitality to get the job done.

What was really lovely reading this Michelle was I could feel how you had changed from putting people above you on a pedestal to now being equal; not only that feeling how you really appreciate yourself for who you are and knowing that the PhD is not ‘it’. I have never been academic and would always put myself less than others, didn’t follow my heart when I was younger and did mind numbing jobs for years. Until a few years ago I could not ignore my heart any longer and looked to go into teaching. The only way I could do this was to have a degree, so along with my full time job I started a degree (much to my amazement!). Since doing this my life has changed so much, doors have opened and I am now doing what I should have been doing years ago (working with young people) which I love immensely. It is great when you have a true purpose for studying. As with you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have inspired and helped me loads allowing me to heal many things one being letting go of the emptyness feeling inside, no longer work in numbing jobs but instead starting to claim back who I truly am. Thanks for sharing.

That is really cool how you are now able to approach a PHD not from a place of needing it or abandoning yourself in the process which could be a whole study in itself! does the attachment to academia (or anything really) affect our health?
What it also shows me is that our previous relationships with study can be re-imprinted, thank you Michelle.

I very much enjoyed reading your words Michelle, it lets me feel that learning/writing a PhD can be so much fun. So many things in life have been made to be arduous, mental and very hard but as you describe it and go about your PhD shows that this does not have to be the case, that it can be light and fun, still hard working but with an absolute joy of what one is doing.

What a beautiful expose on the reality of further studies, although this energy that drives us, is the same that drives most of our ‘education’. It is truly wonderful to read and feel the changes and the growth within you. It is very inspiring to see the simplicity with which things can be done, if we do them connected to ourselves first and foremost.

Michele this is very inspiring to me as I have felt a call to do a PHD but have felt overwhelmed by even the thought of academia as it is not a world I have felt any competence in. But as you have shared as I have built my inner connection I feel much more able to look at this as a possibility and now with your wonderful support.

This is very refreshing Michelle. It puts everything in perspective when we think about a qualification being a way to step up to help humanity and is simply something we need to do in order to do it. It takes away all the pressure, the need for recognition and the intellectual arrogance. It also means we can bring some love into what we are doing, as our focus is on helping others rather than simply gaining another qualification for ourselves. A much needed blog that can bring a new awareness to many.

Michelle what a great blog and way to bring true purpose to a PhD not simply to gain recognition, fill space but to deliver something to humanity based on love and done with love. I am sure this will be setting the new foundation for not only the topics of PhD but the very way education is approached.

Michelle you touch on many themes in your amazing blog. I love that you have found a clear way through the prickly field of academia to engage in research that is totally meaningful to you and to humanity, and love that this alignment means that undertaking this PhD is a purposeful and self-loving act.

It’s very interesting that when I think of university and the life it encourages that it is sinonomous for me with a total lack of self care, staying up all night to get things finished, drinking large amounts of coffee and not eating well. It is very exciting to know that you are changing the approach to Study and research and that you can do this on your terms. It is also very exciting to bring the results and the experiences that students of Universal Medicine have and to share them with a wider group so that this is available for all.

What a turn around Michelle. You have now found your true purpose in bringing Universal Medicine to humanity through research and what this will reveal I have no doubt will change the ideas on wellbeing and health immensely.

Michelle you have made some very valuable points abut what happens in the research culture. From my observations, there is a lot of competition and scrambling for inadequate funding. More often than not, PhD students become quite stressed as the study seems to take over their life, competing demands to teach, publish and research and with deadlines that are always looming. No wonder most people vow never to study again!

Yes I’ve observed very similar things Fiona, the PhD can take over your life, such is the immense pressure and expectation heaped on you. I was talking to a colleague the other day who has recently completed his PhD (part-time) and he was sharing that at his final seminar he presented the milestones during the 7 years – one of them was his divorce. I’m not saying the PhD was the reason but we have to remember that a PhD is just an academic requirement and in the grand scheme of things it is a small part of a life. I’m thankful that I have a wonderful community of friends and family around me to support me through this, and approaching it with true purpose makes it a very different experience.

What an inspiring service you are bringing to humanity, Michelle. What Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is bringing to the world and humanity is breathtaking and so needed. What is also needed is for it to be widely, publically and factually reported and disseminated as possible with love, which you are undoubtedly bringing.

This is a game-changer in so many ways Michelle…in how to do a PhD in a loving, joyful and nurturing way; breaking down the usual consciousness around study, as well as being a mother, employee and student – all very inspirational, and a ‘must read’ for anyone considering any form of study. And…your joy is clearly seen and felt in your photos.

Wow Michelle – your experience you have shared here could almost apply to any aspect of our lives – the intention behind all of our actions. When you begin to describe the purpose you now feel, having moved through so many ideals and beliefs in the past, your writing takes on a power that feels incredible. To then feel your solidness in this intention to bring to the world something true that is far removed from the many aspects of corruption in academia which you touch on, is ground breaking and finally something the world can trust and listen to. The ability to bring something important to the world with no self investment is rare – I want to do a PhD on you and how you are writing this! Awesome Michelle and most inspiring.

Well said Gina, with selfless, loving intention we can move mountains ~ humanity needs to get this memo now as we currently struggle with epidemic proportions of exhaustion like never before. Awesome work Michelle.

Totally AWESOME Michelle. It is soooo easy to get caught up in academia; making it all about the reward, the result, the final outcome, but I love what you’ve shared about how much more you enjoy learning and studying when you can apply a true purpose – supporting humanity – to EVERYTHING you do rather than just having a single purpose to get through the degree and gain intellect. Thank you very much for sharing!

I was once consumed by the academic world. It was all about how much I knew and getting recognition for it. I did enjoy learning, I still do, but there was no true purpose behind it. It is beautiful to read how Michelle has taken her ability to learn and process information and is using that for all humanity.

Thank you Michelle for an insight into a world that is quite unknown to me, although at the same time I have experienced so many of the same feelings such as not seeing myself as an equal in the world and a need for identification. How beautiful that you are now able to honour yourself and humanity by having ‘a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years’. What a great and wonderful blessing that will be for each and everyone of us.

This is an amazing blog about doing a PhD. University life is stressful and intense indeed. Reading that: “I saw the pressure on academics to both teach, conduct research and publish in highly ranked journals in order to bring in more research funding for the university. PhD students are another avenue of funding, with departments receiving a certain amount of money for each PhD student enrolled.” really highlights that there is so much going on. With this pressure to get funding for the university things can get quite distracted from the true purpose for research which is bringing truth to mankind that supports everyone equally. It is beautiful to read that you are doing a PhD with the focus on the true purpose of your research, amazing thank you.

Studying in this way will open the door to show students how to study and maintain their self care, that it needn’t be pushing the body to extremes to hit deadlines and targets. You are paving the way for humanity to see how to study in the future, well done Michelle.

Thank you Michelle I loved reading your honest blog and it feels so refreshing. I feel your joy and purpose in what you are going to work with. And an openess to your wisdom bringing back truth to humanity.

I have never heard anyone say from their body that they really love and enjoy doing research and study before for a PhD! This is a HUGE distinctive difference in every way over the way most choose to undertake such a process and the true quality of the end results of your studies will also show this as you do not have any investment in the end outcome at all.

Great you are highlighting this very significant point here Joshua, as it is ground breaking and puts the whole idea of studying on its head… what Michelle is presenting to us here is absolutely amazing and almost unheard of.

I love your sharing Michelle! What a remarkable turnaround and to feel the difference in how you are approaching this PhD is inspiring. Your sharing is something that needs to go wider for other Universities and students to become aware of the fact that there is another way to approach academia which you are a complete authority on. Awesome work and can’t wait to see what comes from your studies!

I totally agree marcia owen, the third time round Michelle’s decision feels light and truly (i.e. not faslely/self-interestedly) purposeful — the way that education should really be. Brilliant work Michelle.

Absolutely agree Marcia, Michelle is showing their is another way of being, I feel there will be many people who would benefit from this approach. I feel Michelle’s research is just the beginning, feels like there is more to come, can’t wait to see the results.

Michelle it’s really interesting to here about what goes on in the background to higher degree studies at Universities, in that there is much competition and self-interest and very little consideration for students wellbeing or the quality of what is produced. Makes me wonder who these higher degrees are for, in that who do they benefit? It’s no wonder that most would struggle through this process. It’s a very awesome thing Michelle that you are shining a light on post graduate study, not only on bringing a sense of purpose to what you are doing, but that how you work and live is taken into consideration every step of the way. Your photo does not paint a picture of a typical uni student, you look way to joyous!

Beautiful to read your experiences Michelle, it is brilliant to hear the intention of your PhD this time around, bringing Universal Medicine to the world is such a worthwhile project and perhaps your study will be one among many in years to come. The intention of your study is so important, to look at something that is of value to humanity at a time where we are living with so much unease in our lives, illness, disease, depression, suicide, war, cyber abuse, body image crises, strained health services. Your study of Universal Medicine may well be crucial in pinpointing the simplicity of a different approach to life.

Caring and appreciating ourselves is the higher education we are here for. In this simple act we have the power to change everything. Thank you Michelle for your beautiful honesty and returning to study with this purpose.

Perfect Andrew and Joseph, I love this too and you can feel that it is already play rather than work this third time around, all the slog and grind are gone replaced with a gorgeous flow filled with true purpose this time around.

Wow Joseph, I love this, ‘Caring and appreciating ourselves is the higher education we are here for’, it is certainly something that many of us have been re-learning how to put in place in an on going way.

Absolutely agree Gabriele, and it is assumed that university has to be ‘hard’ and people so easily fall into the pattern of working really long hours, into the night, sometimes with no sleep to get assignments and projects done. This is no way supportive of loving for the body and puts it into high levels of stress and overdrive and worry which stimulated nervous system exhaustion. My goodness, this very much reminds me of when I was studying and my process within it made me very exhausted and very burnt out in the process of achieving ‘good’ grades. There was no self love in the way I did my studying and if only I new how deeply enriching the process of self care actually was at that time.

Hi Michelle, reading this blog makes me realise how we can get enthralled and lost in studying and careers and yet still feel like we are getting nowhere. This was me… and the more I worked the more empty I would feel because it came from not feeling I was enough and therefore I felt I had to prove myself all of the time. We can look good from the outside without revealing how we truly feel from the inside because no one asks how we are truly feeling. … so it is one big merry go round – but not so merry really.

Absolutely Rosie, you have nailed the difference between the first two attempts and this new third one. Having true purpose changes everything. Having true purpose is making it about the all and not about self.

Thank you for sharing the back story Michelle of what goes on behind the scenes in academia. My goodness we couldn’t do without all of the amazing research and information we received from academics, but at what cost to the person? Thanks God for Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon and the teachings on self-care, self-love and self-responsibility. You are re-writing history Michelle and are a complete asset to the academic world.

Michelle this piece of writing is so powerful with an honesty and reflection I’ve never seen in the world of academia before because it comes from you, your body and your lived experience of choosing a loving and joyful way of living. Wow written like this your PhD is going to be a corker, a sharing of a truth known to all with an academic tag. Hats off to you, I’m feeling deeply appreciative that you are writing this for us all, for everyone, it’s huge.

This is a great Blog Michelle; it is amazing what is revealed about ourselves when we look with honesty on the reasons behind our choices.
The first step is to acknowledge the disillusionment we may have with what we do. By knowing, respecting, and supporting ourselves we can bring that solidness to whatever we do.

Wow Michelle – this is a beautiful and powerful claiming of who you are through which you know what is needed in the world so that we, Humanity, can grow and develop in truth. There is a way of living that is accessible to all of us, where well-being, vitality and joy can be commonly and naturally lived. It is time the truth is shared ‘that the approach to health, well-being and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.’ is already consistently being lived by many today. The truth that you have chosen to commit to here is so very inspiring Michelle – thank you.

I have just started an undergraduate degree and can see how this way of studying and living could be very beneficial – both to your own health (and sanity!), and also your confidence in your own abilities.

What a brilliant area to do your PhD on, this is something that will definitely support humanity and needs to be shared. I can feel the joy you have in working on this and it would be because you know the true support this study will offer.

It is amazing to feel the difference that intention and purpose makes when doing anything – as you have shown here through your amazing process with the PhD Michelle. When it’s about needing something from the PhD – there is so much pressure and heaviness – the whole work is loaded. When it’s about a service – providing something for everyone in support of true development – there is lightness and a simplicity.

Knowledge for knowledge sake seems rather pointless, knowledge in the pursuit of power (generally as an expert exerting influence over others) is an abuse, but knowledge put into action for a higher purpose… now that is worth its weight in gold. Not only that, but when it is done from everything you are, without pretending to be something you are not, then you have an inspiration for others.

Michelle what an honest post about intention and motivation surrounding what we do whether that’s education, further studies, jobs or careers. In my job of recruitment, I see many candidates not really knowing why they do what (job) they do, or quit. Your post manages to nail the ‘reasons for’ – which often are our excuses where we convince ourselves that what we’re doing, joining or leaving was right, and then you offer what I call – the true reasons. Once we can be honest about the true reason(s) , our intention and motivations behind choice are revealed for what they are, and the pattern can be avoided, as if not then it just gets repeated..

As I was reading your very powerful and inspiring blog Michelle I could relate to so much of what you shared eg not knowing what I really wanted to do, feeling others knew more than me, always comparing myself to others and generally being and accepting less. On the surface I was mostly happy and content but at times I would allow myself to feel the deep emptiness running underneath. For many many years I kept searching outside of myself to fill this hole but discovered that they were all distractions until I finally found the real truth I was looking for all along when I first heard the teachings of Serge Benhayon.

I was thinking just the same thing Bernadette! If a blog such as this was something I had access to as a student, wow — would it have removed some blinkers. This inspiring blog Michelle brings back a choice of how to study that most students do not yet have an awareness of. It would be amazing to have this more widely published.

What you are doing is extraordinary and the evidence that is required for people to take notice of what Universal Medicine is truly offering the world in regards to true health and wellbeing. I love that you yourself are living evidence and as such, through the principles you have chosen to apply to your own life, have the confidence and authority to now see this PhD through. Amazing… and thank you for leading the way.

Michelle what a refreshing way to approach the academic life, I can feel from what you have expressed that you have come to your study with a true purpose and that rather than drain you this time round the study is supporting you by confirming what you already feel, that we are all equal and that we all have something to bring to life.

Having recently completed a Counselling degree I know that what Michelle says is true that “Research and academia are so far away from nurturing” By adding the element of purpose for assisting humanity lifts the foundation of your studies to one of nurturing you. Brilliant. I am almost tempted to return and do the last year of my masters … if a true purpose calls me that is.

What a pleasure to read Michelle, I have never looked at academia in the way you now do, with a knowing and purpose that why you are doing it is far greater than you. After graduating from high school, there was a part of me that wanted to try out higher education but it wasn’t an option and my family more encouraged me to get a job, which I started full-time work 2 weeks later. It wasn’t until I felt to offer Esoteric Healing treatments to the general public that study came into my life again, I was be-side myself, stressed out and made it bigger than what it needed to be… missing the point of what it was about. I just went into the old way I used to study, and leaving it till the last minute. After getting support I started looking at it differently and realised I was afraid to fail and was measuring my self worth on how I went. In the end I started to enjoy. Reading your experience Michelle is inspiring me to follow up on more study I have been feeling to do. Look forward to hearing more about it!

How interesting Michelle to be able to reference yourself as evidence based research to support your studies. Your studies may have a PhD label but will be sharing the Ancient Wisdom with a community that is often lost in striving for recognition and learning more and more about less and less.

True purpose makes such a difference. It brings a level of deeper responsibility and to do a phd on that what is needed to know by humanity, it is truly beautiful that you started to research in what you know is really needed to be researched.

Well said Benkt. True purpose can change EVERYTHING… In my experience without it my work, study and day can go astray in all different directions – trying to scramble together what needs to be done rather than just going all in and taking everything as it comes, with true purpose.

This is a very inspiring blog thanks Michelle and I can really feel the genuineness in it. These are not just words but you can tell that you really live what you are saying here. I also was burnt by the research system years ago and vowed never to return to it but have recently got more interested in research again also and this blog has inspired me to look into it further thank you.

I agree Andrew, the genuineness this blog is written in is what strikes you, feeling that every word is lived and Michelle is not just talking about an idea or a concept, which often is the case when academics write something.

I can feel the joy in you now Michelle that you have a true purpose with the PhD – with this alignment it will all flow – and it was so cool to read that the study will nurture you, that’s a totally new perspective but I loved reading that and how true that feels. This PhD will be compelling reading I am sure.

Michelle thankyou for sharing your journey. Is it possible that you also could write and publish about your experiences as a student offering support to others to find their way? It feels like you have a wealth of experience in this as well. Perhaps even research on what’s it’s really like to study and how people really feel would enlighten everyone and highlight a need for change. Thanks for this honest sharing.

I also began a PhD and felt the pressure to conform to an established university system so did not go through with it and never looked back. It definitely is not something to embark on to prove anything to oneself or to the world. I find it refreshing and inspiring to read about overcoming such pressure ad bringing joy to such a project, even though it is not for me.

So refreshing Michelle to read about someone who is genuinely loving what they are doing in education, especially the university sector. You are clearly the one paving the way for many around how to approach such an academic qualifications, when typically many who embark on such a thing, are doing so at the expense of themselves.

So beautiful to read and receive, Michelle, how completely different it can be to study not to reach something or becoming “better” than before, but to unfold and support something, that is already within without question. And in this connection feeling like an “equal” to the teachers – so great and healing for everyone involved. When I did my diploma (in visual communication) I made a very good decision and did’t develop it from my head – like having a plan and making a concept, but from my body through following my rhythms, feelings and signs. This is a marker till today, as it was a very beautiful time I deeply enjoyed and felt connected to myself and supported in every step I made. Everything felt in place naturally and I hadn’t any investment in the outcome as I knew for myself that I have already passed “my exam” in the figurative sense, with my experience.

Hurray, you are making a change for humanity! Resetting and reimprinting the former experiences is something that is not only healing for yourself, but for everybody who meets you – in person or in writing.

Michelle, it’s lovely to feel the truth and integrity you bring to your studies. So many pursue academic studies at a cost to themselves that they do not realise. So beautiful too that your son is able to offer such a reflection to remain light and playful.

Michelle, that’s a massive turn around and discovery within yourself. Reading I could see how stuck we can be in a cycle without every questioning why we do as we do. It takes courage to feel why we make certain choices especially when most of our lives have been governed by them. Also when we think we are making a purposeful decision, one needs to question what purpose does it serve.

I have to say that one of the greatest lessons and blessings I’ve received from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is to question life, my life as a starting point and then life around me. I can see how I used to just accept things because that’s the way they were. Somewhere along the way I lost the natural curiosity that all children have about the world, and especially about myself. I love being a forever student of me and life.

Beautifully expressed Michelle – I can relate to your comment very well. I ask myself, how was it possible, that I could consider some of my behaviors as normal. Today I know, because I was just in my head and being in my head, I didn’t question what I was doing. Since I can feel my body, I start to feel, what is right for me and what not.

That’s right Kathleen, and the true purpose being to bring forth what has been there, yet kept from our sight for so long. The purpose to assist humanity back to true learning, true self-care, and a true way of living.

Indeed Kim Weston, and I can see it providing the missing link to unresolved cancer cures and other world pandemic diseases treatment research. Wow, if lifestyle factors can be proven to be a major contributing factor to our health and wellness and a particular way of living, as exemplified by Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine Student Body qualitative examples, incorporated into our health practices, we just may find the answers to arresting the alarming decline in world health that science has thus far unsuccessfully spent billions of dollars looking for. A true gift to all Michelle! Wow!

Bringing true purpose to what we do removes the centralised focus of self and in doing so the drive for recognition dissolves. We then have boundless energy as we are working for humanity, as this purpose and loving intention feeds back to itself.

Thank you Michelle for your honesty – both in sharing your PhD journey and your knowledge of the drivers behind the scenes at universities. I can attest to the latter having commenced a research degree over a year ago – my very first conversation with a new supervisor was about journal article publication, which is one way (if not the primary way) universities increase their profile and ranking. Yes, university is all about identifying the brightest sparks and putting them to work for the system. To be in that environment is challenging so kudos to you for being in it and holding yourself so beautifully!

Victoria I really like how you’ve so clearly called out what’s going on – taking students and ‘putting them to work for the system’. It seems not as much as changed since the invention of the factory as we think! Or is it time we got really honest and called out education, at all levels, for what it is – a factory with no care for the wellbeing of people who enter. but more importantly we need to ask why have we accepted this?

What a very beautiful honest account and sharing of your experience. Not many people would admit to the things that you have admitted here Michelle but in the way that you have explored it you have brought a truth to the whole game of ‘saving the world’. Your amazing ability to go back and study your PHD for the third time and bring such purpose and clarity makes me feel how much in service you are and will continue to be with your new degree. No more soul searching, empty feelings of where you are going but that deep sense of supporting humanity with your new acquired skill. Amazingly powerful.

Awesome to share and discuss Michelle. Academic achievement was always something I excelled highly in at school and yet I was lost in it, always with the underlying sadness of having rejected my capacity to feel and live who I am. I was so contracted, disillusioned and burnt out by the time I got to University, I abandoned academic achievement in the pursuit of more practical learning, through TAFE and private colleges. I felt enormous pressure from my high achieving family and the fact that my Dad put me through private school. And yet the falseness and emptiness consumed me, without the anchor of knowing me.

Now, at 37, living and knowing who I am, I am reconsidering University again, yet this time with my foundations in place and knowing what life is really for. It is great to know that study can be joyful and uncomplicated and part of a loving life.

When I read your blog, I didn’t realize that your new PHD was actually about ‘the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine’ HOW AMAZING! I didn’t realise it was possible to do such a thing. Super inspirational and I’d love to talk more with you about it.

Michelle is helping me to see how true purpose comes from bringing all of me to everything that I do, because no matter how small the task may be, we are the important elements that make our jobs in life huge and significant.

The evidence of the joy you feel Michelle is in the gorgeous picture accompanying this post. The ultimate proof of how we are is the way we live and the vitality we emanate and you have vitality in spades!

You are redefining doing a PhD Michelle for all of us to learn from. It is so refreshing to read that you do not have to trash yourself and surrender to what university is dictating how to do it but instead to come from you inner knowing and the appreciation of that and to bring true purpose in serving humanity to it. To me the way you show me you are doing your PhD is already a study on its own and will not only support you in the process of doing your PhD, but you will also evolve your level of self-care and self-love. Beautiful.

‘Basically I never saw myself or my work as good enough and so held myself as less than more qualified others.’ This is so true of so many in all areas of work which makes your PhD all the more needed as it offers another way for humanity. Reading your story it felt like all you have experienced has been part of your journey towards this point of true service.

Michelle, reading your article I was reflecting on the fact that most people who go down the road of academia must go through all the stuff that you went through the first two times, but I have never read any similar criticism of the system, it is a no go area to point out its failings and I imagine everyone assumes that the failings are theirs rather than the systems. Your third attempt feels as if it will be amazing as you are no longer a pawn to the consciousness of the system but are now free of that and therefore able to effect true change.

Doug what I’ve noticed having worked in the system for a very long time is that many people are aware of the failings but do not seem prepared to speak up about it, or indeed change it. Perhaps they are in truth comfortable with how it is for any rocking of the boat potential threatens their financial security. The system is corrupt and the signs of this are starting to show, at least on the inside. I think a key is making sure that students and academics alike start sharing their experiences so that others become aware of the truth behind an institution we have places so much value and esteem in.

You clearly pinpoint the different reasons people can start something whether a PhD, a job or a relationship. Recognition and doing good clearly have to do with personal expectations, investments and the need for an outcome and in the end lead to disappointments. You show that when it is for a purpose beyond yourself there is an ease to it. Great reminder to why we step into certain activities.

The way you are doing your PhD this time is in stark contrast to the other occasions in that your only investment this time is in self-care and honouring your body, where as on previous occasions there was an investment in recognition.
An inspirational turnaround.

Parallel lives we have had Michelle Sheldrake. A billion years ago I started a PhD that I did not complete. I am back again studying for a masters this time.
So these words held me enraptured “knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis”.
Superb truth and super inspiring for me. Clean those university cobwebs away with pure love and dedication to self and humanity before any result.

Wow, what a gorgeous expansion and claiming Rachel. I’m left feeling that ‘what if’ of universities being not about brandishing the self with a myriad of qualifications that help us cope and get by in a dog-eat-dog world but are all about true education, about bringing true learning to all of humanity. One day that will be what our education and university institutions are all about — the true joy of learning and teaching knowledge and wisdom that serves everyone to be more and more of who we all truly are.

It will be making your PhD and Master in Groupwork whatever subject you will study, the more you contribute to evolve others the higher your qualifications, and that simply makes the qualifications redundant as a selfish endeavour.

It’s astonishing how individual and self focused our education system has become and the separation this continues to foster. Indeed Alex group work offers true evolution, for there is gold in appreciating the colours that each person brings and seeing the simplicity & speed with which communication & understanding can be activated when self is removed.

This is interesting Lucinda. I am about to open a can of worms. Universities were born of the churches. Look at the older university campuses like Cambridge, Oxford, Trinity, Sydney etc…the older buildings can be mistaken for churches. The Great Hall at Sydney Uni looks like a cathedral and it is but one example.
So one would presume that their purpose was initially very “church-like”: service to community, and the development of knowledge for all.
So here come the worms!
The universities are clearly based on service to self, the accumulation of security through academic advancement, and the use of knowledge as a shield against life. This is not new. Far from it.
What does that say then about the churches that birthed them? Was the seed of knowledge for self and the safety of taking refuge in the mind, forsaking all others planted long before a stone was laid in the building of a University?

Rachel Mascord says:November 1, 2015 at 1:59 am

It is interesting Alex that Universities have introduced more groups, getting students to complete assignments. The purpose is to encourage collaboration, but there is also the benefit of an easier marking process with fewer assignments to mark. Some students resent carrying others who slack off. People are concerned that some students cruise through doing very little.
I wonder how much time the universities place into the development of group work? Or do they let the students work it out – for group work is not easy. It takes mastery Alex – a true Masters or PhD to have a group come together as one for evolution not just learning.

I have often seen people’s worlds become very small when they are doing a PhD. It is as if the focus on what they are doing is so intense they lose focus on other areas of their lives – relationships, their own health, relaxation time, to name a few. What a beautiful sharing here Michelle as you show there is a different, more loving way to approach doing a PhD, one that begins with an impulse to serve humanity and recognises the hugely important ingredient in it all – self love.

What I love and deeply appreciate as mentioned in these comments is the miracles we are choosing for ourselves with well-being and vitality beyond what is considered ‘normal’. These miracles are quite simple and ordinary in their origins, as they come from us and our choices. Our choice to care and nurture ourselves as we are designed to. With great appreciation to Serge Benhayon and the presentations that have reflected the truth of the importance of what we choose matters to our entire being and humanity.

Beautiful Sandra, “With great appreciation to Serge Benhayon and the presentations that have reflected the truth of the importance of what we choose matters to our entire being and humanity.” Reading articles like this it becomes very clear and evident that our choices to matter and do have an impact on the macrocosm as well as the microcosm.

What you say Sandra is so lovely, how so many have now re-learnt how to truly care for and nurture ourselves, as we are designed to, thanks to Serge Benhayon sharing with us the truth of how we actually all affect each other, so everything, and also, especially the quality of anything we do, affects all others, and the all. This brings a new meaning to self-abuse or self-neglect, as it is not just ourselves that we potentially are hurting, but we are hurting everyone and everything. Are we ready for this true level of responsibility?

Not seeing study as just a piece of paper that gets you to an end result is quite unheard of these days. Everyone is so caught up in getting the top score and doing better for recognition and totally taking them away from the true purpose of why they are drawn to do the study in the first place. Making it about quality and true purpose totally transforms the whole intent and opens it up for others to do likewise through this sharing. Thank-you Michelle.

Julie, thank you for sharing this. You’ve made an excellent point. Something that I will definitely take on board as I embark on my studies… The true purpose of why I was drawn to it and the amazing quality I bring to it. Really- thank you. Rather than just trying to get it finished and over with there is a bit more purpose to it.

Reading your blog Michelle has been very inspiring. I remember those cold days where I prevaricated on whether to stay in academia to do a PHD or not — and the motivation was to hide away from the world into more books and research. I decided not to because somewhere deep inside I knew that doing a PHD from that intent would not have served me or anyone else — the PHD would have been empty. But what you hare here is the awesomeness and expansiveness of connecting to purpose ad how then a PHD can absolutely be a joy to undertake and an enormous service in what it brings to humanity. Thank you for sharing and inspiring everyone of how powerful it is to work with true purpose.

Michelle this makes a lot of sense to me, especially studying with a real purpose. The Presentations of Serge Benhayon explain our connection to all , so of course I now understand whatever we do it is not about Prestige or recognition but about all and what will advance Humanity in our evolution back to the Source. Thank You.

I love what you have shared here ‘I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.’ If only we all felt this way and understand that it is not about what we do but who we are that counts….

I had a bit of a chuckle/aha moment when I read ” I always felt like I never knew enough about the theories, my writing wasn’t up to academic standards, and I viewed my supervisors as the experts. This led to a lot of procrastination.” Oh my I think you have nailed a big reason why we all so procrastinate so much – I know i have done that for sure. So much time wasted. Thanks for the reminder.

“This PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.” I love this Michelle, bringing true humanity into the world of academia, not just concentrating on yourself and what you will get out of it at the end of your PhD – something very rare in this world of bettering oneself at any cost – I would suggest.

I lived my life so invested in the external, by what I did, that even after I accepted the knowledge that fulfillment comes from within and changed the whole way I lived (including giving up a ‘successful’ career) to ‘re-connect’ to myself, I still looked outside of myself for recognition and acknowledgement. To do so had become so in-grained and I had such little belief in my own self-worth. It is an ongoing process of appreciating and accepting myself as being enough as I am but as I continue to do so, “I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that”. Thank you for sharing your journey Michelle, it is very inspiring.

Well it feels like you have already got your qualifications in the PHD of self-love and Love, so no matter what the outcome you will always bring the most important thing in life, that being your love and knowing of your inner glory and that these things are more important than anything else. You are an inspiration to me and the world of university, what a great gift you bring simply by being aware of who you truly are.

Yes, Toni. This is where the real acolade is, in having so much self regard and love to be able to maintain the rigorous workload of completing a PhD. Super inspiring – Michelle is a great example of what is possible when our heart is aligned to true purpose.

Thanks Michelle, You are embarking on a true PhD Project, one that helps humanity. Its lovely to hear the change this time in how the work is not draining but you’re rather enjoying it. A must read for all university students and those who research!

I agree Harrison, a must read for any students, as well as everybody else; we are all students in many ways along the way of our lives. What Michelle brings here is truly evolutionary and evolving us as a humanity.

What a joyful, light and playful expose on how to study (and a PhD) in a loving way. This is not an easy feat. You are truly paving the way for a new way of seeing, feeling and viewing education in a totally different way. Showing the world that it can be done and it is indeed possible.

Michelle I have found reading your blog and many of the comments incredibly healing. I have a few unfinished studies behind me not at Phd level I might add, but I always struggled with the energy of academia, finding that I would get so heady and my nervous system very wound up – self-love let alone nurturing was not sustainable for me at that time. To feel how you are approaching your studies, your purpose and subject matter and claiming it as the nurturing option for you is revolutionary and I can already feel how powerful this is just by reading the responses here. Thank you deeply Michelle, I can feel the joy in what you are doing suffusing all through my body.

I love your blog, Michelle. I have never been enrolled in a PhD, but have done an enormous amount of studying. Even when it isn’t the intention, it is so easy to get affected by the pressure, competition and judgement of academia. I am inspired by your true and loving approach to your PhD this time around and look forward to reading what you publish.

Yes Carmin, you are spot on.. it is easy for pressure, comparison competition and judgement of academia to affect you, so when you feel a purpose and are deeply inspired by a subject, as Michele shows, this definitely keeps focus to the bigger picture of the study on track.

Wow, I was just considering as I read this blog what would happen if this approach, – of having a foundation of self-care, a lived quality, and true purpose – were norm for every PhD study, or in fact any type of study!

Wow Michelle what you share here would support and inspire any student of any age. I love the way you have chosen to do your Phd empowered and with true purpose and knowing that what you bring will support humanity – we then seem to have endless supplies of energy when we take ourself out of the picture and truly serve in this way.

I would just like to say to everyone who has commented that your support is deeply felt and appreciated. This PhD is as much yours as it is mine, and I take great inspiration from observing and reading about the changes we are all making in our lives. As I read more about sociology I am understanding more and more about the power of our choices to either cap us or set us free – although sociology would have us believe that there is no such thing as a truly free individual! We are changing the world every day and if you ever doubted it we are leading the way back to truths we have not lived fro a very long time.

Magnificent Michelle. Your dedication to humanity is palpable. This blog is a game changer in terms of how to approach all study. This is so important with the emphasis that is placed on formal education today. Education fills our minds, but does not set out to develop us as beings. Your quality in study is leading a new way that many of us are inspired by and will apply to our own education process.

I totally agree Rachel with what you say here. Michelle’s blog is so important and so refreshing to read, and as you say, so important, as Education is hailed as so important, but how it’s done today is totally void of the person as a whole, which is then void of humanity. What Michelle brings back here is so momentous and I so appreciate her sharing this for us all to feel and truly understand on a deeper level.

Thank you, Michelle, for bringing up the subject of ‘purpose’. It is becoming clear to me that everything we do can be a blessing for ourselves and others, if we consider the responsibility we have and connect to the true purpose of each activity. This brings greater meaning to life, as we understand the part we have to play in the bigger picture.

I’m not surprised you became disillusioned with the loveless education system as it is. People drive themselves literally into the ground when studying and work day and night to complete their thesis in drive and anxiety. I love the way you claim how important it is to study so that “It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.” We will then be able to get research to prove to humanity what we already know with the Way of the Livingness.

“It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.” I love this line too…it is the topic of the purpose. I am going to start my own thesis with this aim also.

True purpose is so the opposite of all the striving for personal and idealistic achievement, it is always for the all and hence innately fueled by love, truth, unity, evolution. Universal Medicine is all about evolution of and for all equally, hence your studies and PhD with UniMed are as well.

So great that you are doing this PhD in the way that you are Michelle. Bringing what is truly needed with no investment and joyfully so. Brilliant!
‘I feel no personal investment in it, no sense of having to achieve something to please others, to be recognised, to feel good about myself, or feel that I have some value to the world. What I do have is a sense of clarity about how things are so I find I can read the literature without getting bogged down in it (most times), knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis.’

‘I know that this is due to what I have learned about self-love, self-care and self-responsibility from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.’ Rereading your article Michelle, this stood out for me. It is all so simple when we take the hurts and emotion out of the equation and connect to the truth of who we are. Serge Benhayon has presented to us simplicity and truth. We have complicated our lives to the point that it scares us and messes with our innate knowing and natural ability. Your return to study with your connection to yourself is testament to this simplicity rediscovered! Awesome Michelle.

Studying for a true purpose is the key for me in your blog Michelle; you found a purpose and your whole approach and attitude to study changed. I feel this is a very significant lesson for us all.
I also love what you have shared here, “I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that” Simple words Michelle but very profound and wise.

Awesome to hear about how doing a PhD this time around has completely changed. When we feel a clear purpose to things, it all just comes more or less naturally, and surprisingly, even with enjoyment. Thank you for sharing what you have, I have just started studying and this has given me a different perspective to it. The thought of the university procedures freaks me out a little (thanks to the experience the first time around). So, thank you for sharing that it can be totally different- with self love and care.

Hi Michelle, what a refreshing light you bring to studying and PhDs. I love the true purpose and how this changes the outcome of the study. It is not an individual recognition or university claimed academia result. So much energy is put into a result where sometimes the result looses integrity and that it will hopefully make a difference however, I do not see many studies that have really improved the quality of life. Technology is seriously increasing etc but what are we smart about if our behaviors have increased against our bodies, and this in all parts of our world societies. We keep repeating the same behaviors because mostly they are being recognized by another. Not good!
Michelle, like you said the way you are approaching your PhD is a study in itself that needs to be known. I can see this won’t be your last. What a great offering to the world this is.
I deeply appreciate Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine too and the quality of teachings that truly have purpose.

Awesome sharing Michelle. From your wise words “I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that” This is definitely one to pin up on my computer as I complete some college course work.

When we live each day knowing that we are enough there is never any comparison or jealousy so it is vital that we appreciate ourselves. “I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do…”. As I appreciate myself I am noticing how this can bring about a reaction in another so I am also learning to observe and not react to another’s reaction.

“Another significant difference for me is in the relationship with my supervisor, where this time around I find I can hold myself as an equal”. This is beautiful and I can really appreciate what is being said here. Making ourselves less doesn’t serve anyone in truth. When we make ourselves less we are in comparison; it took me some time to acknowledge this when I was presented with this fact as making myself small has been a big pattern of mine. I am recognising that this pattern is becoming much less in my life as those I once held back my expression with, I am now not afraid to show them who I am.

‘I am enough’ – what a foundation for every step we take…and when we actually embody this, we are naturally liberated from any comparison, self-criticism, judgement and therefore separation from the big picture: all of us.

Michelle, what gold this is for all students, thank-you for sharing this hugely inspiring blog about your experience with studying and academia. Through connecting to what we know is true, purpose & responsibility no longer lingers in self but in the humbleness of the all. “I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.” This has to be the greatest learning of all.

I loved reading your blog Michelle. It opened my eyes to this level of study and how intense it can be. What you are doing now with your PhD feels very powerful and I can’t wait to see what comes of it. Not only what is produced, but also you, showing that there is another way to approach study and philosophy and bringing truth and love to an area that is so far void of it.

It is all about PURPOSE. Everything in life takes on a completely different hue when it is carried out with true love and purpose. It is never satisfying or nourishing when we do things for what I call the “little me”. The me, me, me need for recognition is full of an emptiness that is never filled. Equally the martyr self-flagellating exclusion of self does not contain love or nourishment. The joy that comes across in your writing is the discovery of true purpose that serves you and humanity equally.

Beautifully said Nicola, I love how you so simply and clearly describe and distinguish between the ways of how we can be looking for acceptance or recognition, or how we can go into martyrdom and self-flagellating when we don’t have a clear and ‘big picutre’ purpose behind what we are doing. And that having a true purpose doesn’t mean to abandon taking deep care of oneself along the way. After all, who do we serve when we do not serve and deeply care for our own body? Without our bodies to express who we truly are, we’re just talking heads.

Imagine if every child connected with the true purpose for why they were studying what they were studying how different would school be? When we study with true purpose it brings a completely different feel to everything.

I agree Elizabeth. So many kids leave school and go to University because it is the norm or the done thing. Some may also have a very clear goal in mind – but what is offered here by Michelle is true purpose. Getting this into the education system is paramount to the future of humanity. Thank goodness it has well and truly begun with students of Universal Medicine.

I never have understood the role of the PhD but with your clarity and joyful writing I have an understanding on what goes on. What I feel when I read your story Michelle is that life has become about a purpose for all not just for self – something you can absolutely connect to in this piece.

Great point Lee, there is a tangible shift in Michelle’s expression when she realises that this particular study is for us all. She is not invested in it for herself at all. It’s very beautiful to feel.

Beautiful to feel indeed and when the purpose is about everyone, not self gain, the effort and stress factor must change too! Makes the previous resistance I have had to study reduce considerably! Now that is saying something!

Michelle the way you are configured and all that has constellated for this PhD you are needed and here you stand willing and solid in your quality, wisdom, dedication to love and research capabilities. Bringing truth to the world through research is one way that will help truth to be received -you definitely bless Michelle.

Good point Lisa. It’s only now when I go back into study that I realise just who absurd it is. It’s no wonder that these years are often littered with excessive drinking and partying, the tension academic creates is enormous an it’s either shape up or ship out. And then we let these guys run the world as experts? It’s a very silly system which we have allowed.

I loved reading this Michelle, the change in you and thus how you bring yourself to the study is remarkable. I can’t wait to have access to your research once you complete this as I can already feel how important it will be for us all.

Thank you Michelle for sharing your experience and your changed approach to study and a PhD. You are very inspiring and I look forward to reading the finished PhD. As far as I am aware, I have ever read one before. Your new approach, one of honouring yourself along the way, sounds very solid and supportive. It’s such a great point to consider, what is the impulse behind doing this kind of work? Having a true sense of what the PhD is here to bring to humanity, rather than bring acceptance and recognition to the writer. Go Michelle, I love your style and how you are, so down to earth and light hearted and joy-full, it’s always a pleasure being around you.

This is awesome Michelle, how you have turned your approach to studying around so beautifully and sharing it so that others have an opportunity to come from a true intention with their studies. I was only recently talking to a former student at our centre who now has their Bachelor in Education, she was talking about how hard it was and the pressure of it all on her and her peers, and how she realized that she had taken the experiences from when she was young at school with her into her studies.

Michele in reading the title of your blog again ‘Doing phD with true purpose and love’ what really struck me is how most of what gets done in the world is done without true purpose or love. What then are we creating? What then are our buildings designed with and built with? What is our education system built on? what motivates our government? what is behind every product that has ever been designed and what is behind the manufacturing? Everything, absolutely every thing can be questioned if it arose out of true purpose and love?

This piece of writing is gold. I couldn’t wait to leave school let alone further my study but reading this shows us that study can be enjoyed having a true purpose for the all rather than for self obtaining another qualification.

Yes Caroline i was the same, never interested in further study…although i wanted to learn i also had an aversion to studying….it was hard work, and not really an opportunity to express my views without constraints and all these rules, and I found it to be competitive…but this piece as you have said is GOLD, it brings in purpose beyond the recognition and identity of being intelligent….of being smart….of self. The purpose is brought with love, and much wisdom would come from this.

Thank you Michelle for writing this awesome blog reminding me of the utmost importance of self-love, self-care and self-responsibility setting a solid foundation to support ourselves. As I get nearer to getting myself back to work and possibly study after having children I can feel some anxiousness arise but what is inspiring is Michelle’s dedication and commitment to purpose in simply getting on with it and serving humanity.

Another beautiful lived example of the fact that it is not what we do but the quality in which we do it that underpins everything, and that this quality is a living thing which, if we choose with honesty, responsibility, integrity and a view of the big picture is always refining, developing and enhancing the way we do do things.

Absolutely Matilda, ‘ it is not what we do but the quality in which we do it that underpins everything, and that this quality is a living thing ‘ It is a living thing, and this is what can be studied because what we would find is how humanity is not living their potential but within the restrictions of the limitations of our , in general unwell bodies and ideals/beliefs on life. If we were to make life about quality and not doing, then everything shared in this blog would be for all of us…this quality is our connection to us, to this inner resource within that we can’t even fathom unless we start to visit there.

Michelle how beautiful to read how you have found how not to be taken by a system that is draining our students and setting them up to strive for recognition and lose themselves and their initial purpose in competition. if our first education was about how to love and nurture ourselves as you have learned those entrained ways of studying would not last much longer.

Not to long ago I embarked on a new study after many years of feeling how great it was I did not need to go there anymore, as my past experiences were not worthy of relating either. During this study I experienced how here is a different way of learning when the purpose is clear. And when it is not about recognition and achieving then the stress drops away allowing me to feel that I did not need to try and remember everything from my head but that I could connect to what I was learning from my body making it a much easier process. Now I love studying again.

What an awesome PhD to commit to…”I have finally found what I know to be something true that needs to be shared with the world – the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.” Getting the true information, tools and skills that are shared by Universal Medicine is something to study, research and write a PhD about.

Just how research should be done Michelle, to trolly benefit man kind and no one else. I love how you mentioned that when you were writing up your studies on Africa that you became anxious wanting to make sure you were contributing to the world. It speak highly to your integrity, even when you were caught up in all that you shared. It’s amazing how we reduce our academics to constraints that currently are not serving, for example, how long have we been working with these theories and how much have things actually changed? Why would we want to become experts in the field of ‘theories that are not working’ and then continue to regurgitate them? I love that you’re showing the world a new way forward.

I love the truth you playfully but powerfully expose here Martin and that is that currently academics are experts in ‘theories that don’t work’ and yet we uphold them as bearers of truth. It seems that while scientists and researchers are busy chasing the missing part of a theory, or finding one that better explains a phenomenon, they are missing the key that all can be explained by paying attention to life and how it is lived. We don’t need theory when we choose to live the truth every day.

“All can be explained by paying attention to life and how it is lived.” And you are doing this Michelle and showing how it can be done within the framework of research studies which is a groundbreaking contribution to the world of science. Yet it is what science is in its essence – an observation of life – But it has got a bit lost in the dry observation of matter extracted from life.

So great to read Michelle: “my investment in wanting to make a contribution to the world meant I experienced incredible anxiety about what I was actually producing.” This is so much felt in research, the insecurity, the feeling less than supervisors etc. If you observe this it seems so clear that we can never truly contribute to the world when we are feeling like that. I love how you have changed this around with self-love, self-care and nurturing and from there feeling what you can truly bring to the world. This is my experience too, when I started to feel my potential and what I can bring to the world just by being myself, there came a steadiness in me from where it is very simple to study and learn what is needed to be done.

Lieke, I second what you say here that ” we can never truly contribute to the world when we are feeling like that.” Our investment and insecurities drive us and doubt creeps in that we are good enough. Yet it can turn around very easily as it did for you and Michelle, once we connect to the potential of what we are here to bring which gives everything purpose. Self-care and nurturing definitely support us to connect back to that inner knowing.

A few months ago I had to write an exam as well and I caught myself, that I still believed in this illusion, that when I pass the exam I will be a better person, and when I don’t pass I would feel devastated. Now I know as you say, no piece of paper, no degree on earth makes me to a better person. No matter what I do or achieve, I’m always precious and everything I need is inside me. No need to look outside to get recognition or whatsoever.

Wouldn’t it be great if what you say here Alexander, were presented to every student as they began their studies! – it would take away the stress, the anxiousness and the competitive pressure and people would not be so likely to shove themselves through a course or give up on it.

I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that. Your statement here Michelle, is coming from a great self loving base built from truly living more of the real you and confirming and appreciating yourself within that. What you are doing here is an inspiration. Thank-you for sharing.

This is so inspiring Michelle, that it makes me feel I want to go back and study, in a new way and the whole experience would be different…i didn’t even complete my first year at University, I just couldn’t do it….What you bring is the new way which s that you are living in a way of wellbeing that you bring this PHD with purpose greater than for personal gain. Powerful, you could actually be the study to be studied in the PHD. Thank you, I know many I want to share this blog with.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog again. I found too that without a true purpose it is very hard to study at the university. I can see it in many students around me and also in myself in the years before I truly committed to the study I am doing now. Without a true purpose you keep wandering around doing a little here or there, getting exhausted in the process and not enjoying it… with purpose you get on with what is needed to serve humanity as a whole and this is a true joy to do.

Wow, Michelle what an inspiring blog to read. I love how you have re-traced your previous steps and are absolutely clear that it was not a true way to study. A PhD on true well being and the approach to life as presented by Serge Benhayon offers a whole new marker to mankind, the world over. There will be room on many library shelves, doctors surgeries and mental health care professionals offices and many other places for you to illuminate these key areas and bring the lived truth from your own body and a whole community of Universal Medicine students! I look forward to reading it in due course!
“This PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years”.

Michelle this is brilliant – I can’t wait to read this PhD! “This PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.” (This gave me goosebumps). Thank you for sharing our universal purpose: our purpose here is to bring back our ancient ways of being, of living Love and harmony, to Everything that we do…we each hold this purpose!

Bringing truth back to humanity that has been hidden for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. A huge shout out for this Michelle – no longer can we hide under the rock of ignorance – this PHD and your approach to it will be revelatory at this level of education.

Michelle, this PhD is groundbreaking. There is so much information about health and wellbeing and yet we are seeing illness and disease on the rise…which says a lot. This PhD will be revolutionary because there is the potential for you to showcase how many people are now living that goes against the trend of this increase in illness and disease.

‘Basically I never saw myself or my work as good enough and so held myself as less than more qualified others.’ No qualification or certifying piece of paper ever gives us worth or equality with another. We already have this from birth as it is part of our true nature to be equal with all and in brotherhood.

This is such a powerful blog to re-visit Michelle, your PhD will truly serve all of humanity. When we get ourselves out of the way and connect to the purpose – it seems everything in life aligns to support us in this way.

At the moment I am working in a University and all I see are people trying to tick boxes, and trying to get their students to also tick boxes, so that they can get as many people through the system as possible, resulting in more profit for the university. How is it that ‘education’ has come to this? So it is such a beautiful thing to hear someone who is chosing to study in academia again to serve humanity, and who is doing it with and for love, as opposed to a self-driven motive.

Doing a PhD and caring for yourself feels a new concept Michelle. You have re-imprinted how you are studying with a purpose that is beyond your own self needs and justifications. What a great example you are to everyone else who is studying.

What an amazing come back Michelle – good on you for following your heart”s impulse and making the PhD about serving humanity, and doing it from love and not for profit making or recognition. Can’t wait to read it when it’s published.

Wow Michelle what a new way of looking at studying, its nurturing because your body is ready for it. This tells me if I listen carefully to my body then I can be more nurturing by honouring what I hear – time to rest – time to eat – and so on. Great blog.

A PhD done with love, now that is something very new and something that the world really needs. Thank you for your commitment to true education Michelle. This is what humanity needs, those who will stand up and be prepared to do things another way to show us that love works.

This blog has been a game changer for me Michelle. After more than 20 years resisting going back to Uni, I am back. The study is for a Masters, by course work. At first it was rough. I was overwhelmed by the volume of reading and the type of reading I had to do and keeping up with the other students had me more than a little freaked out.
Then, inspired by you I got it.
I read the literature my way, timing it with more care than at the start. And the realisation dawned that I am not here to keep up with anyone…I am here to be me. So that is what they now get on threads.
It is super cool and fun.
It is nothing like when I was a young student in a constant messed up state of worry. Now I am making sure that I am looking after myself before all else.
Loving it!

Absolutely beautiful Revelation Rachel! “I am not here to keep up with anyone…I am here to be me.” this is something I have realised about myself at Uni, it has been extremely helpful. I would rather do another year of my degree (if I have to) than spend a year stressed, wound up, driven and not feeling like myself at all.

Lovely to read Michelle how you transformed from being invested in study to having a true purpose which can bring something of value to humanity. When we do something with purpose we don’t get bogged down in petty concerns and we are motivated to just ‘get on with it’. This gives true focus to the work and a sense of urgency so there is no fluffing about wasting time or doubting yourself for you know what you bring is of value.

I love what you share here Michelle, because in the past I had a lot of false investments in getting a degree, it was just about myself and my lack of self-worth, I wanted to prove something, that I’m good enough. Today I know, that being me is enough, nothing will change this, no matter how I perform or what I will do.

Reading your blog again Michelle is another reminder of the fact that it is not about what we do in life necessarily but rather the quality of how we do it that actually matters. I have felt recently just how much we repeat things again and again and again! All the while presented with an opportunity to embrace more of who we are and what we can bring to it

Michelle this is such an inspiring blog for those who are studying or about to study. I have not done anything like a PHD. but family members have and I know there is so much involved . How wonderful that through your learning and being part of Universal Medicine and listening to the presentations of Serge Benhayon that it has opened the door wider for you, to do what you want and share yourself as you said.

Hi Michele. Thanks for sharing your experience. The difference can be clearly felt between your first two attempts at a PhD and your third attempt. The sense of purpose and focus has completely changed. your ‘whole’ Being was committed the third time as you said – you were living it – the truth of what you were bringing for humanity was already known in your body and experience and so the outcome didn’t matter, you knew the ‘Truth.

Your sharing Michelle, really highlights for us the importance of our intention of why we are doing the study and how bringing in self care and truly supportive living, brings us the support that we need before we embark on study so that we are doing it from a place of service and not for recognition or prestige.

Awesome Michelle. When there is a deep sense of purpose and love of what you are studying, the motivation and motivation to continue on is like a renewable source of energy. It’s an inspiring cycle initiating evolution.

“Basically I never saw myself or my work as good enough and so held myself as less than more qualified others” I can very much relate to this Michelle, I used to work so hard always at the expense of my body without any appreciation for myself. This makes it all so much more hard work! Now I appreciate what I bring to all I come in contact with and feel so much more organised and efficient as I don’t let the heaviness of lack of self worth bring me down.

What I find fascinating is how we can attain qualifications for Africa and get trained in anything we want to and even if we get a pHd in something, we can still have other parts of our personal life that are not so great when we have not got the basics of self love and self care in place in our day to day rhythm.

What’s really different about what you are offering the world through your new PhD program Michelle is the fact that you will be offering the grand teachings of Universal Medicine through your lived experiences and embodiment of its teachings. This is very different than someone researching and presenting on a subject that is more theoretical, and offers the world an example of just how much the Ancient Wisdom has brought so many people back to their true expression and purpose in life, with you being an excellent example of this.

Amazing Michelle. Doing a Phd with not an ounce of needing recognition. Loved how you shared that now when you work on your Phd, it is easy to do and its not a strain, with no attachment to it being ‘liked’ of ‘accepted’. This is the way true scientists operate, with no attachment to results, outcomes or recognition for people but only for truth.

I can relate Anna to working abroad because it seemed glamorous and adventurous yet I too was also just running away and distracting myself. As soon as I had my first esoteric therapy I knew I had to get it together and sort my life out which meant getting to the root of the problem of why I had been running for so long.

It is not so much about what we do but how we do it that matters. I notice that when I do the most basic of jobs with absolute love and full presence then I feel joy in what I am doing rather than feeling it is something I have to just get done.

This blog highlights to me, the need we all have for there to be qualified, well studied people in our societies all over the world. When someone has taken the time to thoroughly learn a subject and then brings that back out in to the world it is a gift for us all, because we need experts, we need masters of their craft – whatever that craft may be, there is a place for us all with every talent and ability that we are here to offer.

Great to reread this blog Michelle and to feel how your reconnection with yourself has freed you from being a slave to study. I can relate this to most things when I feel the truth that we are all equal and it is our own choice to hold back! I’m inspired and love this line…’knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis.’! Thank you.

I am studying myself at the moment, quite different to a PhD, but it is still working towards qualifications that is over and above my normal day job and many other projects I am involved in. It is reflecting to me how I have to amend and adjust my daily rhythm, to ensure that it is honouring what else I have taken on. Ensuring that I am getting the right amount of sleep, where am I placing my energy, how much of my energy am I expending and where. This is an ongoing unfolding.

If we really examine the notion of education with purpose then the picture changes totally from what education looks like now. Currently education is designed to equip the individual to get out there and beat everyone else and get the best job possible – yes that is simplified, but it is the distilled root purpose of education and most parents’ wishes for their children. But if we re-consider the purpose of education as a tool to serve humanity then the landscape shifts dramatically. Self-care becomes essential – how can we serve if we are exhausted. Equality becomes essential – how can we serve if we are in separation from our brothers. Awareness becomes essential – how can we serve if we are not able to see and read the whole story. The list goes on. Absolutely we need the technical, practical and intellectual skills. But those are easy, anyone can read the books. What we are getting so wrong is the nurturing and care of the individual so that their passion, inspiration and livingness are all part of who they are and the job that they are training for. That’s the bit that gets lost. So we are producing exhausted, disillusioned robots.

So great to read about what it means to study without the angst attached to education and learning. This is an epidemic across the world, the pressure and culture that is in universities is rife with fostering unloving behaviours and definitely no self care in the process, it is up to us all to show another way.

The purpose or true reason behind why we are doing something makes all the difference and has a fundamental impact on the way in which we do it and the imprint it leaves behind. Thanks Michelle for your honesty here and inspiration of choosing to study for humanity.

Seeing friends go through a PHD and how much stress they can put themselves under, it is really great to read your blog and see how a true purpose and a dedication to look after yourself can make all the difference. A blog worth sharing at all universities.

What a delightful blog to read…… a completely different perspective on study, nurturing and purpose, and the way forward for the future……thank you Michelle you allowed me to feel ‘studying’ on a totally different level within myself…. very inspiring indeed.

I was immediately struck in the blog by the sentence where you describe that you did not really know what to do, so kept going with some post graduate studies. This is exactly how I felt for my under graduate studies… it was a filler while I waited for some purpose to drop in. The purpose certainly did not drop in at Uni, and instead I coasted along for 4 years, delaying having to really figure out what I was about. Such a waste of time, removed from the real world, but ticking a box in terms of my career path.

Most people who have done a PH.D report how stressful it is so the fact that you are doing one where you are not stressed is quite remarkable. It just goes to show that caring for ourselves on all levels works. This needs to be a PH.D in itself.

It is a marvellous thing to undertake the study for a Phd with a strong commitment to your own values, self care and sense of self. Even in studying for a degree I found I would lose myself in the process of trying to fit into the system. A system of University that puts value on big fancy words, which I learned and started to use, but didn’t really encompass what health, (I was studying Sport and Health) could and should really all be about. It seems that our University systems while purporting to be looking to uncover new truths through research, are in fact much less about that than would first appear, and more about holding up a system of learning that keeps us locked in a certain way of thinking. If they weren’t then surely our supposedly growing intelligence would have answered why we are sicker as a race than ever before. So I congratulate you Michelle on being able to stay healthy and well in undertaking your Phd, as for sure University will not have supported you to be well in this process.

Michelle even though I have not done a PhD I can relate to the seeking of recognition through study, learning and acquiring qualifications to stand out from the crowd. I recently completed some studies where none of this was there and it feels very different. I can feel how this was something that was needed so that I can serve in the position that I now hold, not to get the new job. Out studies and qualifications can very much serve, but it’s important to be able to see through our underlying motivations to really see if it’s true or not.

‘I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone.’ Beautifully said Michelle, to live and claim this truth is amazing, your PHD will truly inspire and bring healing to all who read it.

Imagine if they told you in school to study something that will help mankind, and that this would be your form of service – it would change everything. Instead we go into study because it’s a sign of intelligence and a way to get accepted in society and for our own gain and career. If we realised we had a massive purpose, we would approach study and degrees and qualifications so differently.

To undertake study that doesn’t require recognition is a wonderful thing, it can change the very basis of what we learn and what we understand when research is carried it out with a greater purpose than the appearance and the gaining of a certain outcome. Instead research carried out with genuine benefit to us all in terms of how we live and how we interact with one another.

Thank you Michelle, this blog is a great reminder to appreciate all that we bring both in terms of who we are and what we do, when we fully appreciate ourselves we are bringing an extra quality that is priceless.

“What I do have is a sense of clarity about how things are so I find I can read the literature without getting bogged down in it (most times), knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis.” I love this Michelle. Getting ‘bogged down’ in things often happens in our heads, and when there is some pursuit of recognition or acceptance in one way or another it puts pressure on us to be a certain way all of the time, which can’t last!

I love the clarity that you bring here Michelle – the clear purpose behind the study, without personal investment for recognition, and the clear difference this has made to the way that you study and relate to your supervisor.

Michelle this is such a great line “I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone.” We underestimate the power we bring to the whole by not appreciating what we bring and what we contribute just be being ourselves. Having value in ourselves and a relationship that is based on self love and appreciating ourselves is a gift we offer to everyone because it supports us to bring all our wonderful qualities to all we do in the world – and it does have a big effect.

This is inspiring, thank you Michelle, it takes the pressure and stress out that we are so used to experiencing and going into when learning and opens the space for learning and working with a purpose that serves all of humanity.

“knowing the truth of this study is in my body, not my head, for I live it on a daily basis” for a non academic Michelle I have always labeled myself as ‘the practical type’ in other words don’t ask me to know and remember, it’s not my thing. Since meeting and listening to Serge Benhayon I have learnt to trust my body and I am constantly in appreciation of my body having a free flow of expression, on any topic when required. I was always in fear of ‘not being smart enough’ but now I feel my equality with all appreciating the essense I bring.

I am glad you mention appreciation here Michelle. There is a massive difference between being invested in getting recognition from something and appreciation of what you do and who you are. This was something I did not realise when I was studying and working up until a few years ago.

Such an important distinction you raise here Michelle between embarking on study for work) for personal achievement and gain (beyond the need to earn a living) as opposed to having a purpose to our endeavours that truly supports people. This is not something often spoken about in this way, and is certainly refreshing to hear that an area of study like this can offer humanity something so supportive.

What is so interesting here Michelle is your developing awareness of how you were avoiding the feelings of emptiness and lack of true purpose in life. On the surface we can create lives and events which look very purposeful and full of good intent and yet underneath we are unfulfilled and discontent. As always it can be more useful to look at the energy behind the things that we do and whether we are doing something to fulfil an unmet need within us.

Michelle, you are absolutely amazing! I come from a background of having 3 University degrees, and hence I can relate to the whole recognition aspect that comes with academia. But I have been very inspired by what you have presented here with regards to letting go of all the recognition and the competition and giving yourself a greater purpose, working in a way that honours and respects you every step of the way and embracing yourself as an equal on all levels. Love it! It is making me see that there is a different way that this can be done – we can bring our natural rhythm into a frenzied system and not lose ourselves in it, but on the contrary be there to make true change and be an inspiration for others to do likewise.

“At 30 I had a great job, great friends – basically life was one big party – but I felt empty inside.” Yes if we feel empty inside nothing will ever feel enough or will fulfil us. But then it is also the other side there if we feel connected with ourselves we are able to truly serve and bring something that supports humanity.

Working with Purpose offers us the opportunity to make life not just about the self with the ‘what’s in for me” mentality but it allows us to connect to the bigger picture and connect and appreciate what it is we offer humanity for the benefit of the all.

What a different place the world of academia would be, if studying was seen as being a part of self nurturing, self love and self responsibility, and not, as is often the case, an exercise in self abuse in order to receive a piece of paper, which make one more marketable. Thank you Michelle for sharing your experience of a truer way to study for a PhD.

How gorgeous, what a great turn-around, to bring all the purpose that you felt when working full time back to your phd studies, a clear and very real example of how we can live one continuous life throughout all the different aspects of our daily activities, with not one having more importance than another – all being equally important because it is ultimately you who is living them.

Indeed the academic is a very ugly place, with the deceitful outlook about doing something good for the world. It is a machine that – just to name some ugliness – uses people to get in the money they get for every graduate. A heartless machine that is not inserted in people.

“I know that this is due to what I have learned about self-love, self-care and self-responsibility from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I have come to know that I am enough just as I am, and no piece of paper will change that.” Here here Michelle, Its handy to have those all important pieces of paper sometimes but not to let them rule you or tell you who you are.

I love that you’re doing this Ph.D Michelle and most importantly of all how you’re approaching it, ‘this is a PhD done in, and with love, at every step’, and this is something to celebrate for all of us as it shows we can be ourselves, lovingly so in an academic environment too, and also that we are an equal to all we meet there.

“This PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. It is bringing back to humanity truths that have been hidden for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.” So inspiring Michelle and so great that the academic community will have an opportunity to share in the fact that self-loving choices can make a huge difference to our lives.

‘My time in Africa also taught me a lot about the realities of the international aid business, and I began to question who is really benefitting,’ This is a great question, who does really benefit? And what are the ‘benefits’? For even though trillions and trillions of pounds /dollars have been poured into the country nothing has changed. There has to be more here that we are not understanding …. or do not want to be aware of. Which is why so many people appreciate Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine as you do, including myself, for the energetic truth they both live and present. It is deeply needed and very much time for all of us to hear this. It is great to hear how so much has changed for you and that it is coming from a knowing within your body and not your head.

Feels like this form of study should be the cornerstone of all education everywhere and at every age. We are in effect taught by the current system to seek security and protection and go into competition and self gain at the expense of others simply by the way it’s set up. It could be a whole lot different and you are a living example of that Michelle!

Very inspiring, thank you Michelle. I am about to embark on a study programme and your blog is very supportive, confirming what I feel inside and emphasising that it is how we care for ourselves that builds the care we bring to all others and to our service in the world.

“I can see how the enthrallment was all about recognition – recognition for achieving a high level of academic success, for getting your work published, for being an expert in your field.” This is so true, sadly for so many. We lose the real reason for learning-to share wisdom with and for others, not to compete for greater self aggrandizement and glory against them.

It is lovely reading how this time round your PhD has a purpose beyond obtaining another qualification. I am finding more and more that anything less than a purpose that considers other people feels empty and in contrast a bigger purpose provides a context within which challenges, issues and unfolding can be more easily and joyfully worked with.

Post grad studies are often seen as a get out of life card, the last ditch attempt to escape the reality of adult life and retreat into futher knowledge – what your sharing is how we can do this without having to back away from life.

It is interesting, this part about working for the recognition of being an expert in your field. Because this pursuit does not take in to account who you really are and places instead all the focus or attention on what you can do or achieve. No wonder it feels so empty! because with out you there, adding that special ingredient, that certain something vital and beautiful to the study or the work, then it is just a lot of people doing for the sake of doing, rather than living and being for the love of life.

We tend to study towards a point of finality or completion that will occur at the end of our degree, or course etc. However, studying with no end point, but a dedicated purpose inclusive of what that study means and everything it delivers the world thereafter is an entirely different approach and quality.

When we immerse ourselves in knowledge we can get really heady and literally forget about the body as the mind becomes the most important thing, the problem is when this happens our whole life suffers as we can get lost in the detail forgetting the bigger picture. The highest form of intelligence will always be love, knowledge without love has no true evolution.

It’s great to read your experience of research and you commitment to researching with true intent. I have experienced a few days at work recently listening to research and it struck me how narrow the view is in the field, how much it is approached in a straight line often. Research as it is does not serve to support us to be healthier and more understanding of our populations, as it misses the part about why in almost everything I read. That is the part science hasn’t caught up to, the unknowns, the willingness to look at life from a different angle.

For someone who has never been into study as such, I was very interested in your sharing. It showed such insight and honesty about how study was used and I came to the realisation that it does not bring an inner settlement. Unless you bring something to the study as you shared, love and purpose, rather than expecting the study to give you something for you personally.

I went to university and only lasted a year, the pressure to preform was too much so I quit. But on reflection I can also see that I did not support myself at all during this time and at work (and life in general) when I don’t care I am less able to handle life. Recently I’ve considered going back to study and I wonder how it would be when making the effort to care for myself while studying rather than acting as if my existence relied on my grades.

Thank you Michelle, life for me post the work of Serge Benhayon is completely different also. I used to think I had to do a specific thing to experience a sense of purpose in the world, that illusive job or role to “make a difference”. What I realise now is how much I was trying to fill an inner emptiness, and what I was truly missing was living from the essence of me. Living now in reconnection to my essence each moment has purpose for all, not because of what I do but because of how I am and the quality of energy I emanate throughout my day.

Beautiful Michelle, ‘I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone’, I love this, reading this inspires me to claim my qualities and also to get on with it – not to go into self doubt but instead to live the love that I naturally am and to enjoy the work that I am doing and the ever deepening connection that I have with myself and others.

This is a perfect example of how we can work very hard and thrive. I have always loved working, however the quality of my work and what I bring to work has altered significantly since applying the principles that Universal Medicine present.

It’s beautiful to read how your relationship with research and academia has changed Michelle – how you now hold an innate worth for who you are, so you’re not personally invested in needing recognition or a certain result and don’t see yourself as lesser than another just because of their position or knowledge. And I love how you said that it’s about bringing back ancient truths to mankind, rather than creating something entirely new.

‘I have come to appreciate all that I bring to the world – both in terms of who I am and what I do, and that I have a responsibility to get on with it and bring this to everyone’, Inspiring words for me to read today Michele, thank you. I hear the words loud and clear time for me to get on with it, for I have something to bring to everyone.

It doesn’t make sense to me to narrow our focus so much in a period of our life, to condense and shrink all that we live for into the attainment of a PhD. You are leading the way Michelle in establishing the fact that research and study is not about personal gain – it is about purpose.

“I have finally found what I know to be something true that needs to be shared with the world – the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.” Well said Michelle I and many many others can also say the same. We know the huge benefit that Universal Medicine has brought to our lives and so we naturally want to share this with everyone.

“I have finally found what I know to be something true that needs to be shared with the world – the approach to health, wellbeing and life presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.” I so agree Michelle. If all the world understood this approach the rates of illness and dis-ease would fall dramatically.

The possibility of being recognised as an expert in your field is something that I know and that many people who I know have paid much effort to achieve. But this ever lasting feeling of it never being enough is also a constant theme that seems to drive us forward, always searching for more and better. It is therefore something else altogether when life takes a different purpose that is not just about oneself being satisfied but is actually about people and the love we can have between us first and foremost with all the things we can do coming a very sweet but duly placed second.

What a great sharing on coming to realise what a true student is and does! It holds lots of inspiration for anyone who is considering going down the path of study and doesn’t want be sucked dry by the system because of the way people usually approach their studies. Best of all, it really applies, no matter how far up the education qualification scale they have travelled.

Interesting to observe how there are ultimately two purposes in life. One which is all about security, protection, comfort and self and the other which is about the true good of us all. Making life about the former is what we often think is the best way to get through but it is in truth making us less and often does not allow the fullness of what we can bring to all as we make it about ourselves. It is selfish. The later is greater simply because it is about humanity.

I have been part of a million projects and groups, looking to do something ‘good’ – yet all the time I did it neglecting myself and what my body needs. So what is delivered to humanity then? Nothing but another empty body looking to fulfill a need. God knows we have enough of this in our world. You show beautifully Michelle that the greatest degree we are here to complete is one of self-Love.

This is a really inspiring article to read Michelle. As someone about the embark on 6 years of University and over ten years of further training and exams, I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed with it all and the exams I have to take this year and next year which will determine if I can pursue my chosen path (Medicine). But as you’ve shared, bringing absolutely everything back to the purpose of HOW we can support humanity and how this PHD, A Level, qualification or certificate is a stepping stone and platform for us to do that makes study becomes much less intense.

I’m in the research student realm too and can relate, very much so. Holding the understanding that there is a different way to approach the writing and production of a thesis is critical when you’re immersed in academia and all it entails. I love the observation that writing can be self-nurturing – but had never thought to apply it to this task. Bringing that perspective will make an enormous difference. Thank you, Michelle.

World wide there are so many lost days at work due to sickness, many people do not like their job; this to me highlights the fact if we do not have true purpose then we flake, we lose energy and we become disinterested in life.

Bringing back true purpose ignites our fire for life and passion for work.

Doing a PHD is a huge undertaking in itself, but to be approaching it with so much integrity and care is monumental in the overall way that this achievement will not only be viewed by the establishment that will assess it, but also just by you and how you are as you hold that qualification with so much grace.

I often feel there are a lot of unnecessary subjects to study out there, and quite frankly if we do not have a core foundation of self love, self acceptance and self responsibility first then how ever much knowledge we acquire will not be worth it.

When we live with purpose there is absolutely no obstacle that can get in the way of what needs to be done, for we are incredible supported by the universe to deliver what is needed for the good of all.